\3 


''^^lANS 


Bv/.O  CIJROA 


CHICAGO, 

Satan's  Sanctum. 


"I  am  to  speak  of  stories  you  will  not  believe; 
of  beings  you  cannot  love;  of  foibles  for  which 
you  have  no  compassion;  of  feelings  in  which  you 
have  no  share." 

— W.  Mc.  Praed 


By  L.  O.  CURON. 


C.  D.  PHILLIPS  &  CO. 

CHICAGO. 


Copyrighted  1899  by 
I..  O.  CURON 


PREFACE. 

The  present  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Chicago  was 
recently  re-elected.  A  large  number  of  independ- 
ent voters,  deeming  one  issue  a  dominant  one, 
which,  in  fact,  was  no  issue  at  all,  assisted  in  again 
bestowing  on  him  the  most  important  office  in  the 
municipal  government. 

The  legislature  had  repealed  a  law  under 
which  evil,  through  the  threatened  action  of  cor- 
ruptionists  in  the  Council,  might  have  been  visited 
upon  the  city.  That  they  were  powerless  to  in- 
flict it  had  been  demonstrated  prior  to  the  repeal 
of  that  law  and  prior  to  the  election.  His  compet- 
itors entertained,  upon  the  question  of  the  exten- 
sion of  street  car  privileges,  the  same  views  as  his 
own.  Both  were  men  of  as  great  ability  as  he, 
and  each  had,  and  still  has,  a  reputation  for  per- 
sonal integrity  not  surpassed  by  his.  Both  were 
men  more  mature  in  years,  and  possessed  wider 
business  experiences  than  he.  Hence,  either  of 
them  could  have  been   safely    entrusted    with    the 


4  Preface. 

powers  of  the  executive.  Neither  of  them,  how- 
ever, could  invent,  for  campaign  purposes,  so 
catching,  so  powerful,  and  yet  so  sophistical,  a 
political  phrase  as  "The  streets  may  be  dirty,  but 
they  still  belong  to  the  people."  To  the  inventor 
of  that  cry  the  Mayor  owes  no  small  political 
debt. 

It  might  be  inferred  from  the  large  vote  he  re- 
ceived that,  as  a  public  servant,  he  had  been  tested 
and  not  found  wanting.  With  respect  to  his  per- 
sistent opposition  to  the  extension  of  street  car 
privileges,  without  adequate  compensation  to  the 
city,  and  for  a  period  not  in  excess  of  twenty 
years,  it  should  be  said  he  bravely  and  manfully 
did  his  duty,  following,  however,  not  leading  pub- 
lic opinion  on  that  question.  All  danger  from  that 
source  had  disappeared  when  the  polls  opened  in 
April  last.  His  competitors  stood,  on  that  morn- 
ing, as  honorably  pledged  to  throttle  it,  if  it  again 
appeared,  should  either  of  them  be  elected,  as 
he  did. 

It  cannot,  however,  be  said  that  during  his  first 
administration  he  did  his  whole  duty.      It  is  a  pe- 


Preface.  5 

culiarity  of  the  American  people  that  they  always 
praise,  with  exaggeration,  an  official  who  partly 
does  his  duty,  if  the  part  performed  is  regarded 
by  them  as  especially  serviceable  to  the  public.  He 
had  the  benefit  of  so  much  exaggerated  praise  from 
a  press  that,  for  nearly  two  years  then  last  past, 
had  been  condemning  him,  that  some  people  were 
charmed  into  a  sort  of  hysterical  admiration  for 
him.  He  had  the  happy  faculty  of  concealing 
the  shortcomings  of  his  first  administration,  un- 
der cover  of  a  supposedly  overshadowing  danger. 
Thereby  he  caused  his  previous  record  to  appear 
as  if  free  from  blemish,  and  that  he  had  performed 
every  duty — and  performed  it  well.  The  very 
adroit  use  of  this  faculty  is  the  only  reason  why 
he  received  a  plurality  of  votes  so  much  larger 
than  that  of  any  other  candidate  nominated  on  the 
same  ticket  with  him  for  a  minor  office. 

His  best  friends  did  not  contend  that  he  did 
his  full  duty.  They  now  only  hope  he  will  do  so. 
A  public  official  is  not  entitled  to  praise,  or  thanks, 
for  doing  his  whole  duty.  He  is  elected  for  the 
purpose  of  its  performance.      But  full  performance 


6  Preface. 

is  so  rare  that  the  people  seem  to  be  content  if  a 
pubHc  servant  will  do  his  duty  only  fairly  well. 

The  vices  which  prevail  in  the  city,  and  which 
grew  to  their  enormous,  threatening,  and  hideous 
proportions  during  the  Mayor's  first  administra- 
tion, were  known  to  the  people  to  exist,  but  were 
forgotten  by  them  at  the  polls,  were  known  to  the 
police,  and  are  still  known  to  them,  and  upon  no 
conceivable  basis  of  belief  can  it  be  supposed  their 
existence  may  not  have  been  known  to  him, 
and  that  he  does  not  know  of  their  continued 
existence. 

It  is  for  him  to  utter  the  command  "Stop,"  and 
they  will  cease,  in  so  far  as  they  can  be  kept 
within  bounds  by  his  authority.  Their  abso- 
lute suppression,  under  existing  legislation  is,  per- 
haps, impossible,  but  their  regulation  thereunder 
is  not  wholly  impracticable.  Ordinances  demand- 
ing, for  instance,  the  imposition  of  a  fine  of  $200 
per  day  for  keeping  a  house  of  ill  fame,  have,  he 
may  say,  never  been  enforced,  and  have  fallen  into 
a  condition  of  "innocuous  desuetude." 

The  field  of  observation  on  matters  such  as 
these  is  too  wide  to  be  entered  upon  here. 


Preface.  7 

During  the  Mayor's  first  term,  one  of  his  best 
friends,  in  the  columns  of  his  widely  circulated  news- 
paper, severely  criticised  his  administration,  but  sup- 
ported him  for  re-election,  and  explained  in  its  col- 
umns, in  response  to  an  inquiry  made  by  a  correspond- 
ent just  prior  to  the  election,  his  reasons  for  doing 
so  as  follows,  viz. : 

"If  Mayor  Harrison  shall  receive  the  support  of 
the  independent  voters  because  of  the  good  points 
of  his  administration,  that  will  show  that  his 
strength  consists  in  doing  right,  not  in  doing 
wrong.  It  stands  to  reason  that  he  would  rather 
have  the  approval  of  honest  and  respectable  men 
than    of    the    vicious    elements    of    the    community. 

The  R believes   that   Mayor   Harrison's  present 

administration  from  first  to  last  has  improved 
and  not  deteriorated.  The  mayor  himself  ought  to 
know  what  are  the  weak  points  in  it,  and  if  he  has 
acquired  wisdom  by  experience  he  should  choose 
his  heads  of  departments  for  his  second  term  with 
a  view  to  curing  the  evils  and  failures  of  his  first 
term.  The  relations  of  the  police  department  with 
gambling  resorts,  all-night  saloons  and  other  forms 


8  Preface. 

of  vice  have  been  indecent,  and  probably  corrupt. 

The   R has   frequently  urged  the   dismissal    of 

Superintendent  K and  the  appointment  of  some 

better  man.  It  believes  that  Mayor  Harrison  is 
much  to  blame  in  permitting  the  evil  conditions 
to  continue." 

The  support  he  received  for  re-election  came 
from  a  very  large  and  respectable  element  of  the 
community,  but  nobody  can  doubt  that  he  owes 
that  re-election  to  the  solidarity  of  the  votes  of  "the 
vicious  elements  of  the  community !" 

The  respectable  element  did  note  vote  with  such 
allies  m  order  that  he  should  continue  to  conserve 
the  interests  of  vice  and  criminality.  The  sup- 
porters of  the  all-night  saloons,  gambling  hells, 
poker  joints,  and  of  all  other  nests  of  iniquity  ral- 
lied to  his  assistance  to  a  man.  Without  the 
massed  vote  of  the  saloon  and  its  hangers  on,  he 
would  not  have  been  again  chosen  Mayor. 

The  leading  financial  paper  of  this  city,  non- 
partisan in  its  political  views,  said  on  the  eve  of 
the  election :  "An  emergency  exists.  The  govern- 
ment of  the   City  of   Chicago   is   held  in  contempt 


Preface.  9 

not  only  in  Chicago  but  wherever  Chicago  is  known. 
We  are  losing  good  citizens,  property,  capital,  pres- 
tige. The  very  streets,  with  their  filth  and  dust, 
repel  the  visitor;  the  servants  of  the  city,  whether 
in  administrative  or  legislative  positions,  are  objects 
of  suspicion;  the  scheme  of  a  well  ordered  civil 
service  is  breaking  down;  vice  receives  encourage- 
ment as  the  price  of  votes.  What  wonder  that 
many  believe  the  heart  is  rotten?  But  there  is 
virtue  and  power  enough  to  change  all  this.  The 
moral  sentiment  and  enlightened  self  interest  of  the 
city  once  aroused  and  properly  guided  would  over- 
whelm all  opposition." 

Few,  if  any,  evidences  have  been  given  out 
from  the  City  Hall  since  the  Mayor's  re-inauguration 
tending  to  show  that  he  proposes  voluntarily  to 
destroy  this  "contempt."  His  new  comptroller  is 
a  worthy  successor  to  the  departed  Waller,  while 
the  selection  for  his  corporation  counsel  is  all  that 
could  be  desired  by  the  most  captious  citizen.  But 
the  vices  and  crimes  which  principally  brought, 
through  their  unchecked  prevalence,  that  con- 
tempt,  find   the   man,   under   whom   for   two    years 


lo  Preface. 

the  police  force,  which  in  his  friend's  language  has 
been  "indecent  and  probably  corrupt,"  again  in  its 
command.  Doubtless  the  army  of  the  vicious  re- 
joices. Certain  it  is  the  community  wonders.  He 
will  be  observed  as  time  passes.  May  the  results 
of  observation  redound  to  his  everlasting  credit 
and  success,  and  to  the  benefit  of  the  great  city  of 
which  he  is  the  executive  head ! 

In  the  following  pages  references  to  the  causes 
of  that  contempt  will  be  made.  The  prurient  will 
find  nothing  in  them  to  their  taste.  These  refer- 
ences ought  to  be  of  some  assistance  to  the  Mayor 
in  finding  out  through  a  properly  organized  and 
well  officered  police  force  that  these  evil  causes  do 
exist.  Having  discovered  them,  their  haunts,  and 
their  aids,  if  he  does  not  already  know  of  them, 
will  he  tolerate  them  any  longer  in  this  commu- 
nity? Will  his  continuous  Superintendent  of  Police 
be  further  allowed  to  throw  his  kindly  protection 
over  them? 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Chicago — Its  Development — Power  of  Criminal  Classes  in  Its 
Government — Pretenses  of  Reform — Official  Satisfaction — 
Public  Condemnation — ^Truths  as  to  Power  of  Criminal 
Classes. 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Police  Force — Its  Strength — Composition — Power  Dom- 
inating— Duties  of  Defined — Population  of  Chicago — Na- 
tivity of — Police  Enemies  of  Civil  Service — Demoralizing 
Effect — Tariff  on  Crime — Rates  on  Gambling  Houses,  Etc. 
— Penalty  for  Refusal  to  Pay — Instances  of  Police  Rates — 
Method  of  Collection — Habits  of  Policemen — Some  Are 
"Hold  Up"  Men — Blackmail  Levied — Law  Department — 
Arrests  in  1897 — Police  Fix  Boundaries  for  Crime — Chief's 
Testimony — Analysis  of  Arrests  in  1897  in  Second  Police 
Precinct — In  City  at  Large — Division  of  Fees  and  Fines 
With  Magistrates — Police  Courts,  Corrupt — ^Cost  of  Police 
Force. 


CHAPTER  III. 

All  Night  Saloons— Character  of— Thieves,  Thugs  and  Pros- 
titutes in — Visitors — Country  Buyers,  Transients,  Dele- 
gates, Youth  and  Old  Age — Women  in — Character  of — 
Basement  Saloons — Scenes  in — ^Private  Rooms — Scenes  in 
All  Night  Saloons — Dancing — ^Music — ^Morning  Hours — 
Robberies,  Etc.,  Planned — Girls  Entrapped — Young  Men 
Ruined — Quarrels — Raids — Drinking — Surroundings  of  — 
Houses  of  111  Fame — Assignation  Houses — Slumming  Par- 
ties— Fads — Salvation   and    Volunteer   Army — ^Houses   of 


Contents. 

Ill  Fame — Inmates  of — How  Managed — Practices  in — 
Sux)erstitions — Luck  Powders — Sources  of  Supply — Pa- 
trons of — Wholesale  House  Entertainer — Police  Protection 
— Diseases — Attempts  at  Reform — People  Indifferent. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Re-election  of  Mayor — False  Issue  Upon  Which  Re-elected — 
Vices  in  Chicago — "Blind  Pigs" — Protected  by  Police — 
Where  Situated — How  Conducted — Classes — Drug  Stores, 
Bakeries,  Barns — Revenue  to  Police — Located  Near  Uni- 
Tersities — Lieutenant  of  Police  Convicted  for  Protecting — 
CJock  Fighting — Bucket  Shops — Women  Dealers — Pool 
Rooms — Police  Play — Pulling  of,  Farcical — Views  of  Chief 
of  Police — Players  in — Landlords — Book  Making — Alli- 
ance Between,  and  Police  and  Landlords — New  York  and 
Chicago — ^Chicago's  Police  Force  Worst — Hold  Up  Men — 
Methods — Victims — Police  Sleep — Mayor's  Felicitations, 
April  11,  1899 — Account  of  Hold  Ups,  Same  Day — Classes 
of  Hold  Up  Men — Strong  Armed  Women — Street  Car  Con- 
ductors Robbed — Ice  Chests  and  Ovens  for  Prisons — 'Hair 
Clippers — Protection  to  Criminals — "Safe  Blowers'  Union" 
— Fakes — Panel  Houses — Badger  Games — Nude  Photo- 
graphs— Obscene  Literature — ^Confidence  Men — Diploma 
Mills — Gambling — Women's  Down  Town  Clubs — Sexual 
Perverts — Opium  Joints. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Common  Council — Boodlers — Bribers — Council  of  1899 — Pow- 
ers of — ^Misuse  of — Price  of  Votes — Passage  of  Boodle 
Ordinances — Public  Works  Department  and  Bureaus — 
Illegal  Contracts — Street  Repairing,  Etc. — Civil  Service 
Commission — History  of — Present  Board  Tools  of  Mayor — 
Examination  by — Examples  of — Attacks  Upon  Law — Spe- 
cial Assessments — Asphalt  Ring — Fire  Department — 
County  Government — Insane  Asylum — Sale  of  "Cadavers" 
— ^Contracts — Sheriff's  Office — Jury  Bribers — Judges — 
Revenue  Law — Tax  Dodgers — Town  Boards — Coroner's 
Office — Press  Trust — Civic  Societies — Berry  Committee 
Report — Baxter  Committee — Opening  Testimony — iConclu- 
sion. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Chicago — Its  Development — Power  of  Criminal 
Classes  in  Its  Government — Pretenses  of  Re- 
form— Official  Satisfaction — Public  Condem- 
nation— Truths  as  to  Power  of  Criminal 
Classes. 

Chicago,  with  its  world-wide  fame  as  the 
most  marvelous  product  of  American  enterprise 
among  municipal  creations  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, with  its  wonderful  growth,  from  an  Indian 
trading  post  in  1837  ^^  ^  modern  city  of  the  sec- 
ond size  in  point  of  population  in  the  year  1898, 
with  the  record  of  its  stupendous  strides  in  reach- 
ing its  present  commercial  and  financial  position 
among  the  commanding  trade  centers  in  the  world, 
with  its  strong  civic  pride,  its  numerous  and  ad- 
mirable religious,  educational  and  charitable  insti- 
tutions both  public  and  private,  its  cultured  devel- 
opment in  literature,  music,  the  arts  and  sciences, 
with  its  memorable  disaster  in  the  great  fire  of 
1 87 1,    its    speedy    recoupment    from    that    disaster, 


14  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

and  its  brilliant  achievement  in  the  organization  and 
management  of  the  magnificent  "White  City,"  the  wide 
range  of  the  classified  exhibits  of  which  covered  the 
entire  and  progressive  contributions  of  mankind  to 
all  that  goes  to  make  up  the  civilization  of  the 
age  from  the  earliest  period  of  the  commencement 
of  that  civilization,  this  Chicago,  grand,  phil- 
anthropic and  patriotic,  suffers,  as  for  years  it  has 
suffered,  from  the  most  extensive  and  persistent 
"advances  in  political  power,  along  the  lines  of 
their  respective  crimes,  of  the  criminal  classes,  un- 
til, from  the  wealthy  bribe-giver  to  the  lowest  sneak 
thief  and  sexual  pervert,  these  classes  carry  elec- 
tions, corrupt  the  corruptible  in  the  Common  Coun- 
cil, sway  justice  in  the  forum  of  the  lower  courts, 
and  govern  tlie  police  force  until  it  has  become  a 
municipal  aid  to  the  perpetration  of  crime. 

From  one  administration  to  the  other,  the  grow- 
ing power  of  these  lowest  classes  of  society  mani- 
fests a  stronger  hold  upon  civic  administration. 
Pretenses  of  reform  are  all  that,  so  far,  have  fol- 
lowed each  bi-ennial  election  of  a  Mayor.  Here  and 
there,    and    now    and    then,    gambling    houses    are 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  15 

closed,  threats  against  police  officers,  who  follow 
the  well  grounded  practice  of  levying  protection 
rates  upon  brothels,  street  walkers,  gambling  games 
of  all  descriptions,  saloons,  concert  halls,  and  that 
varied  combination  of  evils  forming  the  working 
machinery  of  vice,  are  given  publicity,  and  while 
the  growth  of  these  monstrous  evils  cannot  but 
be  known  to  public  officials,  both  from  observation, 
official  reports,  events  as  chronicled  in  the  daily  press, 
grand  jury  reports,  civic  and  State  investigations,  and 
verdicts  in  the  courts,  a  nerveless  cowardice  seems 
to  seize  each  succeeding  incumbent  of  the  Executive's 
office,  under  whatever  political  party's  banner  he 
may  be  called  to  the  chair,  and  prevents  him  from 
grappling  with,  and  throttling,  the  ever  increasing 
power  of  the  combined  votaries  of  all  forms  of 
vice  and  crime. 

The  Mayor  recently  congratulated  the  Common 
Council  in  these  words,  viz :  "The  report  of  the 
General  Superintendent  of  Police  contains  assur- 
ance for  all  classes  of  citizens  that  the  efficiency, 
vigilance  and  zeal  that  have  characterized  this  de- 
partment will  permit    them    to  pursue  their  avoca- 


i6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

tions  without  fear  of  being  robbed  and  assaulted  by 
long  and  short  men.  One  need  not  be  exceed- 
ingly observant  to  note  that  with  the  approach 
of  winter  comes  an  annual  outbreak  of  crime.  We 
all  noticed  evidences  of  such  a  visitation  at  the 
advent  of  the  winter  just  ended,  but  it  should  not 
be  allowed  to  pass  without  comment  that  criminal- 
ity rarely  showed  itself  during  last  fall  when  it 
was  crushed  out  with  a  suddenness  and  success 
that  ought  to  be  regarded  with  pride  and  satisfac- 
tion by  every  Chicagoan.  There  has  been  no  ev- 
idence of  crime  through  the  recent  year  as  in 
former  years;  the  criminals  came  in  the  fall,  but 
they  were  severely  taught  that  Chicago  was  an 
unhealthy  clime  for  them,  with  the  result  that  they 
were  wise  enough  not  to  linger  here  long." 

This  statement,  so  self-satisfying  to  the  official 
who  made  it,  so  totally  false  in  fact,  so  dangerous 
to  the  welfare  of  the  people,  and  so  flippantly  in- 
terwoven into  a  public  document  by  one  who  either 
knew  the  contrary  to  be  the  truth,  or  who  know- 
ingly used  his  official  position  for  the  sup- 
pression    of     truth,     if     not     of     crime,     is     con- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  17 

tradicted  by  the  disclosures  made  by  every  or- 
ganization devoted  to  the  purification  of  the  pub- 
lic morals,  the  betterment  of  civil  administration, 
and  the  eradication  of  the  bestial  vices  so  freely 
and  openly  flaunted  in  the  faces  of  a  busy  and 
apparently  indifferent  people. 

Contrast  the  announcement  of  the  Law  En- 
forcement League  with  this  official  declaration. 
Said  this  League,  composed  of  the  pastors  of 
churches  and  law-abiding  people,  "Chicago's  influ- 
ence ought  to  be  on  the  side  of  purity  and  good 
order,  but  the  fact  is  that  vice  and  crime  are 
prevalent,  lawlessness  is  defiant,  recreancy  to  sworn 
duty  is  all  but  universal.  The  disorderly  saloon 
is  the  nesting  place  of  the  terrible  debaucheries 
which  disgrace  our  city.  Ordinances  and  laws 
which  have  for  their  object  the  suppression  of 
venality  and  crime  are  trampled  ruthlessly  beneath 
the  feet  of  a  disloyal  and  un-American  horde.  *  *  * 
The  public  mind  is  profoundly  agitated  over  the 
reign  of  lawlessness  and  moral  disorder.  *  *  * 
The  co-operation  of  all  decent  and  respectable  peo- 
ple   is    absolutely    imperative    if    municipal    govern- 


i8  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

ment  is  to  be  transferred  from  the  baser  to  the  bet- 
ter element.  *  *  *  We  have  a  right  to  demand 
that  lawlessness  shall  cease;  that  gang  rule  shall 
be  broken;  that  partisan  politics  shall  be  made 
subsidiary  to  municipal  righteousness ;  that  the 
all  but  omnipotent  power  of  the  disorderly  shall  be 
broken;  that  the  carnival  of  crime  which  curses 
Chicago  shall  end ;  that  the  law  breakers,  crime 
makers  and  bribe-takers  shall  be  adequately  punished 
and  that  the  fair  name  of  this  imperial  city  shall  be 
redeemed  from  the  reproach  of  blackmail,  wanton 
immorality  and  widespread  disorder." 

A  noted  divine  said  recently,  "I  believe  that 
this  city  is  to  be  the  greatest  city  of  this  continent 
and  of  the  world.  I  believe  that  Chicago  is  the 
devil's  headquarters,  and  I  think  it  is  not  far  from 
the  City  Hall.  If  our  own  eyes  could  be  fully 
opened  we  would  see  there  infinite  indecencies, 
bum  politicians,  ward  workers,  heel  tappers,  men 
who  are  the  devil's  own  and  delivered  body  and 
soul  to  do  his  bidding." 

Another  said,  "Saloons  and  all  other  haunts  of 
vice  are  wide  open,  as  they  have  never  been  before 
in  the  city's  history." 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  19 

A  distinguished  lawyer,  speaking  before  the 
Christian  Convention  recently  held  in  this  city, 
said,  "Scourge  off  and  out  of  your  temples  the 
political  hyenas  that  prey  on  the  municipal  body 
politic,  that  fatten  on  the  scarlet  woman's  wages 
of  sin,  that  share  the  gambler's  plunder  and  the 
blind  pig's  profits." 

Another  eminent  divine  declared  at  this  meet- 
ing, "He  knew  that  men  have  been  kept  from  com- 
ing to,  and  investing  in,  Chicago  because  our  mor- 
ality is  so  low." 

Still  another  divine  declared  at  the  same  meet- 
ing, "But  when  in  one  night  five  homes  in  the 
block  in  which  I  live — and  I  moved  there  because 
it  was  the  safest  place  in  the  city — are  robbed,  and, 
within  the  same  week,  three  men  are  held  up  with- 
in two  blocks,  the  conditions  are  serious."  Serious, 
indeed,  they  are,  despite  assurances  of  protection 
by  the  police  force  emanating  from  the  highest 
official  authority! 

A  few  plain  truths  as  to  the  utter  prostitution 
of  the  civil  authorities  to  the  power  of  the  crim- 
inal classes  in  Chicago,  and  as  to  the  filthiness  of 


20  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

those  classes,  are  attempted  to  be  given  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages.  They  may  assist  in  arousing  the 
people  to  a  keen  sense  of  their  duty  as  citizens 
to  demand  from  a  new  administration  a  rigid  en- 
forcement of  the  law  by  public  officers,  and  that 
these  officers  shall  become  the  servants  of  the  peo- 
ple rather  than  remain  the  slaves,  as  well  as  the 
persecutors  for  private  gain,  of  the  riffraff  of  the 
community. 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  Police  Force — Its  Strength — Composition — 
Power  Dominating — Duties  of  Defined — Pop- 
ulation OF  Chicago — Nativity  of — Police  Ene- 
mies OF  Civil  Service — Demoralizing  Effect — 
Tariff  on  Crime — Rates  on  Gambling  Houses, 
Etc. — Penalty  for  Refusal  to  Pay — Instances 
OF  Police  Rates — Method  of  Collection — Hab- 
its of  Policemen — Some  Are  "Hold  Up"  Men — 
Blackmail  Levied  —  Law  Department  —  Ar- 
rests in  1897 — Police  Fix  Boundaries  for 
Crime — Chief's  Testimony — Analysis  of  Ar- 
rests IN  1897  IN  Second  Police  Precinct — In 
City  at  Large — Division  of  Fees  and  Fines 
With  Magistrates — Police  Courts,  Corrupt — 
— Cost  of  Police  Force. 

The  Police  Force  of  the  City  of  Chicago  con- 
sisted on  December  31st,  1897,  of  3,594  men,  of 
which  number  2,298  were  first-class  patrolmen,  the 
remainder  being  officers,  sergeants,  clerks,  drivers 
and  patrol-wagon  men.  The  number  of  square  miles 
of  territory  embraced  within  the  city  limits  was, 
and  is,  186.4. 


22  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  force  is  composed  largely  of  men  of  one 
nationality  or  of  their  descendants.  A  large  ma- 
jority affiliates  with  the  same  church.  Prior  to 
the  passage  of  the  civil  service  law  in  1895, 
each  bi-ennial  administration  made  the  force  its 
own  valuable  mine  in  which  veins  of  rich  rewards 
for  its  friends  and  political  workers  were  found. 
To  this  force  the  aldermanic  supporters  of  the  ad- 
ministration attached  their  henchmen  and  ward 
heelers,  and  these,  in  turn,  as  public  officers,  looked 
after  the  political  welfare  of  their  backers  and  of 
the  administration  these  backers  supported.  Thus, 
the  political  complexion  of  the  force  was  liable 
to  change  every  two  years.  Notwithstanding  the 
presence  of  a  civil  service  law  on  the  statute  books 
under  which  the  force  is  now  supposed  to  have 
been  re-organized  and  re-appointed,  its  political  com- 
plexion remains  the  same.  The  organization  is 
dominated  by  the  political  party  which  alone  uses 
the  distinctive  title  of  "Tammany."  The  civil  serv- 
ice law  has  been  attacked,  in  behalf  of  this  public 
force,  by  officials  who  were  sworn  to  sustain  it, 
until  through  their  repeated  assaults  upon  it,  its  ad- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  23 

ministration  is  looked  upon  as  farcical,  and  its  ad- 
ministrators as  its  most  cunning  and  relentless  foes. 

The  duties  of  the  police  force  are  clearly  de- 
fined in  the  city  charter.  Generally,  that  instrument 
provides,  "The  police  shall  devote  their  time  and 
attention  to  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their 
stations  according  to  the  laws  and  ordinances  of 
the  city  and  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  de- 
partment of  police,  and  it  shall  be  their  duty,  to 
the  best  of  their  ability,  to  preserve  order,  peace 
and  quiet,  and  enforce  the  laws  and  ordinances 
throughout  the  city." 

According  to  the  school  census  of  1898,  the 
population  of  Chicago  was  then  1,851,588.  This 
population  is  one  of  the  most  polyglot  of  any  city 
in  the  world.  Each  modern  language  is  spoken 
by  some  one  class  of  its  people. 

The  population  born  of  American  born  parents 
exceeds  that  of  any  other  nativity,  being  in  round 
numbers  486,000,  while  the  Germans,  born  of  German 
born  parents,  and  Germans  born  in  Germany,  num- 
ber in  round  figures  468,000.  Of  the  Irish  131,000 
are  American  born  of  Irish  parents;    born  in  Ire- 


24  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

land,  104,000,  making  a  total  of  235,000.  These 
are  the  largest  classes,  by  nativity,  of  its  people,  and 
with  the  proverbial  ability  of  the  latter  nationality  to 
govern  and  "get  there"  it  supplies  the  police  force 
with    the    largest    quota    of    men,    year    after    year. 

During  the  years  1897  and  1898  this  force,  and 
every  man  seeking  to  become  a  member  of  it,  was 
taught  by  city  officials,  and  by  none  more  energet- 
ically than  by  the  chief  law  officer  of  the  city  ad- 
ministration, that  the  civil  service  law  was  an  es- 
pecial enemy  of  theirs,  inasmuch  as  it  abridged 
their  privileges  and  immunities  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  and  was,  therefore,  a  menace  to  their 
rights,  wholly  unwarranted  by  the  Constitution  of 
the   United    States. 

It  was  accordingly  attacked  upon  that  ground 
by  the  officers  sworn  to  enforce  it,  and,  since 
the  establishment  of  its  validity  by  the  highest 
courts  in  the  land,  its  provisions  are  constantly 
sought,  by  them,  to  be  avoided  and  defeated. 

The  efforts  of  the  commissioners  to  enforce  it 
were  commented  on  in  an  official  message  by  the 
city's  Executive,  as  if  such  efforts  were  in  fact  being 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  25 

made,  and  were  part  and  parcel  of  an  adminis- 
trative policy ;  while,  in  practice,  no  possible  legal 
device  or  illegal  invention  was  allowed  to  fail  of 
application  by  municipal  officials  to  destroy  its 
commands,  even  by  its  commissioners,  who  an- 
nounced themselves  as  its  greatest  devotees.  No 
more  demoralizing  example  could  have  been  set 
before  the  police  force  than  the  acts  of  the 
higher  authorities.  Such  acts  have  produced  the 
inevitable  result,  that,  as  such  higher  authorities 
saw  fit  to  openly  throttle  a  law  they  were  sworn  to  en- 
force, the  rank  and  file  of  the  police  force  itself  in- 
ferred that  they,  too,  could  seek  to  evade,  and  refuse 
to  execute,  all  laws  and  ordinances  which  in  their 
judgment  afifected  the  suppression  of  crime. 

Consequently,  that  force  has  become  demoral- 
ized and  corrupt,  openly  levying  a  tarifif  for  reve- 
nue and  official  protection  upon  all  classes  of 
wrong-doers,  below  those  who  commit  felonious 
crimes  of  the  highest  grade,  and  when  the  rates 
are  not  promptly  paid  by  the  protected  classes, 
they  are  coerced  by  arrest  into  the  payment  of 
fines  and  fees  for  division  between  the  justices  and 


26  Chicago.  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  officers.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  a  sched- 
ule of  prices  prevails  for  police  protection,  which 
prices  must  be  paid  for  that  protection.  Gam- 
bling houses  pay  from  $50.00  per  month  upwards; 
panel  and  badger  games,  $35.00  to  $50.00;  music 
halls  with  saloon  and  private  room  attachments, 
$100.00;  houses  of  ill  fame,  from  $50.00  upwards, 
according  to  the  number  of  inmates  at  so  much 
per  capita;  cigar  store  and  barber  shop  gambling 
games,  $10.00;  "blind  pigs,"  the  unlicensed  vendors 
of  liquors,  $10.00  to  $30.00,  and  with  permission 
to  gamble,  $30.00  to  $50.00;  crap  games,  $10.00 
to  $25.00;  opium  and  Chinese  joints,  $10.00  to 
$25.00;  drug  store  "blind  pigs,''  $10.00  to  $30.00, 
and  prize  fights  and  cocking  mains,  a  percentage 
of  the  gate  receipts — usually  one-fifth. 

Whenever  a  gambling  house  refuses  to  pay 
it  is  immediately  pulled.  These  rates  of  police 
blackmail  and  of  protective  tariff  have  been  sworn 
to  before  public  investigations,  and  inquiry  trials, 
as  imposed  and  collected.  The  press  has  repeat- 
edly commented  upon  these  frightfully  cruel  per- 
secutions,   reeking   with   the   infamy   of  the   partici- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  27 

pation  by  public  servants  in  a  division  of  the 
fetid  proceeds  of  the  procuress,  of  the  landlady, 
of  her  unfortunate  slave,  the  harlot;  of  the  skin 
gambler,  the  clock  swindlers  and  tape  gamesters, 
and  of  the  operators  of  massage  parlors,  both  male 
and  female. 

In  one  case,  tried  before  the  Criminal  Court  of 
Cook  County,  a  lieutenant  of  the  police  force  was 
convicted  of  the  crime  of  exacting  money  from' 
the  owner  of  a  "blind  pig"  paid  to  him  by  the 
owner  for  protection  in  his  unlawful  occupation. 
Going  back  a  few  years,  during  the  World's  Fair 
period,  as  high  as  $2,000,  it  is  said  in  public 
print,  was  paid  for  similar  protection  in  a  single 
instance. 

The  officer  in  charge  of  a  given  precinct  makes 
the  collections,  retains  his  percentage,  passes  the 
remainder  on  to  his  next  superior,  who  withholds 
his  rake-off,  and  so  on  until  the  net  profit  reaches 
the  highest  police  official.  A  leading  city  news- 
paper, in  a  caustic  editorial,  declared  that  "in  Chi- 
cago protection  means  the  privilege  to  commit 
crime   upon   the    payment   of   a    sum    of   money   to 


28  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  police.  It  has  ceased  to  mean  that  the  citi- 
zen will  be  guarded  against  the  acts  of  crim- 
inals." So  thoroughly  recreant  to  duty  have  some 
of  the  ranking  officers  of  this  force  become,  that 
one  of  the  oldest  captains  when  asked  why  he 
did  not  close,  in  his  district,  certain  notorious  sa- 
loons where  depraved  women  robbed  strangers  in 
wine  rooms,  replied  that  "some  people  would  steal 
in  the  churches,  and  you  might  as  well  close 
churches  as  close  the  saloons  for  that  reason." 

Patrolmen  in  uniform  are  found  in  dives  play- 
ing cards ;  and  in  others  sleeping  during  the  hours 
of  their  supposed  presence  on  their  beats.  They 
know  the  women  of  the  town,  the  street  walkers 
in  the  territory  they  patrol,  the  keepers  of  every 
vile  joint,  where  the  most  depraved  practices  are 
indulged  in,  the  houses  of  ill  fame,  high-priced 
and  low-priced,  the  "Nigger,"  Japanese,  Chinese 
and  mixed  bagnios,  the  policy  shops,  fences  and 
schools  for  thieves. 

All  these  vice  mills  and  their  operators  con- 
tribute to  the  policemen's  demand,  and  thus  ob- 
tain   permission    to    carry    on,    in    daylight,    and    at 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  29 

night-time,  their  nefarious,  lecherous  and  disgust- 
ing crimes  and  orgies. 

One  officer  gambled  in  a  saloon  with  a  citi- 
zen, lost  his  money,  overpowered  the  citizen,  re- 
covered his  lost  money  and  then  robbed  his  victim. 

In  broad  daylight  an  officer  held  up  a  citizen 
and  robbed  him  of  his  money  and  valuables.  When 
the  Chief  of  Police  had  this  case  called  to  his  at- 
tention before  a  legislative  investigating  commit- 
tee, he  answered,  "I  tried  that  man  yesterday. 
He  got  on  the  police  department  ten  years  ago, 
and  he  always  had  a  reputation  of  being  a  good 
officer,  and  the  other  morning  he  had  been  drink- 
ing some,  and,  like  everything  else,  became  a 
little  indiscreet  and  started  out  to  hold  up  a 
man  and  got  hold  of  a  few  dollars  in  that  way, 
and  under  the  impression,  very  likely,  that  he 
would  never  be  discovered,  and,  like  everybody 
else,  with  his  good  record  in  the  past,  he  was 
discharged  and  reinstated,  because  many  people 
vouched  for  him,  and  all  said  he  was  an  ex- 
cellent officer,  but  he  stepped  by  the  wayside 
and  fell,  and  we  had  him  arrested  and  discharged." 


3b  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Whether  the  many  people  who  so  generously 
interceded  with  the  Chief  of  Police  for  the  reten- 
tion of  a  thief  as  a  member  of  his  force  were  that 
thief's  fellow  pals  and  hold-up  men,  was  not  dis- 
closed ;  but  it  may  be  said  without  hazard,  that 
they  were  not  reputable  men — if  they  had  any  ex- 
istence at  all  other  than  in  the  imagination,  and 
as  part  of  the  bewildering  policy  of  an  incapable 
Chief. 

Methods  of  levying  blackmail  upon  other  than 
the  disreputable  classes,  but  reaching  through 
them,  upwards  and  beyond  them,  are  not  only 
countenanced,  but  advised  by  superior  officials 
and  approved  by  the  city's  highest  executive. 

On  the  5th  of  November,  1897,  a  practical 
stranger  in  the  city  was  given  the  following 
letter,  signed  by  the  Chief  of  Police,  viz. : 

*To  Whom  It  May  Concern: 

The  police  department  is  about  to  issue  a 
history  for  the  benefit  of  their  relief  fund.  Kindly 
make  all  checks  payable  to  W.  V.  M.,  East  Chi- 
cago Avenue  Station,  and  any  favors  shown  the 
bearer  will  be  appreciated  by, 

Yours   truly," 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  31 

This  stranger  had  been  denounced  through  the 
press  as  a  fraud  and  a  schemer,  who  had  been 
arrested  in  other  cities  for  obtaining  money  under 
false  pretenses,  which  facts  were  known  to  the 
Chief  of  Pohce  when  his  letter  of  recommenda- 
tion was  written.  The  stranger  was  to  receive  a 
commission  of  twenty-five  per  cent  on  all  subscrip- 
tions obtained  by  him,  and  the  treasurer  of  the 
fund,  who  was  selected  with  the  approval  of  the 
Chief,  the  Mayor,  and  his  principal  political  satel- 
lite, ten  per  cent.  Some  $8,000  were  collected 
under  this  scheme,  one  large  railroad  corporation 
subscribing  $1,000  and  a  noted  Board  of  Trade  op- 
erator $500.  Whence  the  remainder  came  rests 
in  conjecture,  with  a  well  defined  belief  that  noted 
gamblers,  and  keepers  of  houses  of  ill  fame,  were 
contributors  to  it. 

A  legislative  committee's  inquiries  prevented 
the  consummation  of  the  scheme,  but,  owing  to 
the  speedy  departure  from  the  city  of  the  treas- 
urer, the  source  of  the  remaining  subscriptions 
could  not  be  inquired  into. 

As  a  cover  to  the  purposes  of  this   scheme,   it 


2,2  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

was  proposed  to  place  these  collections  to  the  credit 
of  the  Policemen's  Benevolent  Association  Fund  of 
Chicago,  which,  by  reason  of  the  failure  of  a  bank, 
whose  officials  are  now  under  indictment  for  the 
misappropriation  of  public  funds  other  than  those 
of  this  association,  had  become  badly  impaired. 
This  proposal  followed  the  appointment  of  the 
legislative  committee  of  investigation,  by  way  of 
preparation  to  conceal  the  real  purpose  of  the 
swindle.       That  association  repudiated  the  plan. 

The  Chief  of  Police  was  asked  by  the  commit- 
tee of  investigation  whether  he  thought  it  was 
the  proper  thing  for  him,  as  Chief  of  Police  of 
Chicago,  "to  give  to  a  man  to  go  out  among  busi- 
ness men,  corporations  and  manufacturing  establish- 
ments of  the  city  a  letter  telling  them  that  every- 
thing this  man  did  and  said  you  would  be  respons- 
ible for,  if  you  knew  he  had  been  indicted  and 
arrested  in  different  cities  of  the  United  States 
for  defrauding  the  people  out  of  money  on  this 
same  identical  scheme?"  He  answered,  "I  don't 
believe  it."  Immediately  he  was  asked,  "Have 
you  heard  A.   was  arrested    a    number    of  times?" 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  33 

and  in  reply  said,  "I  read  in  the  newspapers  that 
he  was  arrested  and  had  trouble  in  Detroit." 
Again  he  was  asked  whether  A.  had  given  him 
any  information  as  to  the  number  of  times  he  had 
been  arrested  for  getting  money  on  false  pretenses, 
and  his  answer  was,  "I  can  give  you  some  infor- 
mation on   that   subject." 

These  extracts  from  the  sworn  testimony  of 
this  official,  speak  in  no  commendatory  manner  of 
his  sense  of  official  responsibility.  They  point  to  a 
mind  deadened  to  all  sense  of  the  duties  of  his  posi- 
tion; they  elevate  him  before  his  force  as  a  con- 
spicuous example  for  them  to  follow,  in  his 
disregard  of  the  principles  of  official  decency. 
In  themselves  they  urge  upon  that  force,  by  their 
silent  influence,  an  emulation  of  such  a  black- 
mailing course,  even  though  in  its  accomplish- 
ment the  assistance  of  a  swindler  is  required, 
and  deliberately  accepted. 

A  brother  of  the  Chief,  a  member  of  the  de- 
tective force,  was  frequently  found  in  poolrooms, 
assisting  in  their  management,  and  yet  the  Chief 
seems   to   have   been    unable   to   acquire   the   knowl- 


34  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

edge  that  poolrooms  were  running  wide  open 
throughout  the  city.  He  probably  knew  it  as 
an  individual.  In  response  to  a  question  as  to 
his  information  on  this  subject  he  answered,  that 
no  particular  complaints  were  made — "the  news- 
paper boys  often  came  around  and  said  there 
was  pool  selling  going  on  at  different  places," 
and  he  presumed  "if '  a  desperate  effort  had  been 
made  to  look  that  kind  of  thing  up,  we  might  have 
possibly  been  successful."  More  open  admissions 
of  official  incompetency  it  would,  perhaps,  be 
difficult  to  make,  and  no  more  flagrant  instances 
could  be  cited  of  official  degeneracy  than  are 
these  extracts  from  the  sworn  testimony  of  a 
definant  and  dangerous  public  servant. 

In  the  attack  on  the  Police  Pension  Fund, 
which  was  established  under  an  act  of  the  leg- 
islature for  the  benefit  of  an  officer  who  shall 
have  reached  the  age  of  fifty  years,  and  who 
shall  have  served  at  reaching  that  age  for  twenty 
years  on  the  force,  then  be  retired  with  a 
yearly  pension  equal  to  one-half  of  the  salary 
attached    to    the    rank    which    he    may    have    held 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  35 

for  one  year  next  preceding  the  expiration  of 
his  term  of  twenty  years,  or  who  shall  have  be- 
come physically  disabled  in  the  performance  of 
his  duty,  there  was  manifested  a  degree  of  moral 
irresponsibility,  if  not  of  criminality,  and  a  blind 
adherence  to  partisanship  in  defiance  of  the  laws, 
seldom  found  in  the  history  of  any  municipal 
corporation,  and  unmatched  even  by  the  develop- 
ments of  the  Lexow  committee  of  New  York 
City,  in  matters  of  a  kindred  character,  inquired 
into  by  that  committee. 

For  the  sake  of  creating  vacancies  in  the 
ranks  of  the  police  force,  to  be  filled  by  appoint- 
ments to  be  made  by  the  Chief  in  defiance  of 
the  civil  service  law,  and  while  that  law  was 
running  the  gauntlet  of  every  conceivable  attack, 
both  open  and  covert,  which  could  be  made 
upon  it  by  every  department  of  the  city's  ad- 
ministration, and  by  none  more  virulently  than 
by  the  Law  Department,  a  plan  was  devised 
and  put  into  execution  whereby  officers  of  all 
ranks,  after  years  of  police  service  and  experience 
and  in  strong    physical  condition  willing    and  anx- 


$6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.    . 

ious  to  remain  in  their  positions,  were  retired 
from  the  force  against  their  protest,  merely  to 
make  way  for  the  substitution  of  new  appointees 
— the  poHtical  friends  of  the  Chief  and  his  su- 
perior. Men  with  good  records  and  physically 
able  to  perform  their  duties  were  thus  forced 
upon  the  rolls  as  pensioners,  to  deplete  a  fund, 
sacred  as  a  trust,  not  only  for  the  benefit  of  the 
living  and  necessitous  pensioners,  but  also  for  the 
widows  of  the  men  who  had  lost  their  lives  in  the 
service  and  the  wives  and  children  of  those  who 
had  died  after  ten  years  of  police  duty.  One  ef- 
fect, as  to  the  standing  of  this  fund,  was  to  reduce 
the  balance  on  hand  January  i,  1897,  from  $16,837 
to  $4,543  December  31st,  1897.  Thus  over  $10,- 
000  was  raided,  seized  and  forced  upon  unwilling 
pensioners,  "still  able  bodied  and  anxious  to  retain 
their  positions  at  their  full  salaries."  A  more  con- 
temptible exercise  of  political  power  and  admin- 
istrative robbery  could  not  well  be  imagined. 

The  omissions  of  the  police  force  in  the  en- 
forcement of  the  laws,  their  acts  of  commission 
in   evading,   attacking   and    disregarding   others,   es- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  37 

pecially  those  relating  to  all  night  saloons,  the 
source  of  most  of  the  arrests  for  disorderly  con- 
duct, where  wantonness  is  displayed,  assignations 
are  arranged,  drunkenness  aided  and  brawls  en- 
gendered, are  blamable,  not  so  much  upon  the 
patrolmen,  as  upon  their  superior  officers.  The 
patrolmen  do  as  they  are  told.  They  report  in- 
fractions of  the  law,  or  not,  according  to  their 
instructions.  Their  eyes  are  opened  or  closed, 
as  the  "wink  is  tipped"  to  them  from  above. 
The  men  are  brave  in  moments  of  danger,  fear- 
less in  rescuing  the  inmates  of  burning  buildings, 
risking  their  lives  in  stopping  runaway  horses, 
tender  in  caring  for  lost  children,  or  destitute 
persons,  both  men  and  w^omen,  and  faithful  in 
the  performance  of  their  duties  as  members  of 
the  ambulance  corps. 

During  the  year  1897  one  hundred  and  eighty 
were  injured  while  on  duty,  and  of  this  num- 
ber forty-seven  were  on  service  in  the  first  pre- 
cinct, embracing  the  business  district,  the  thor- 
oughfares of  which  are  the  most  crowded  and 
in    which    the    heaviest    fires    happen,    while    only 


38  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

seven  were  injured  in  the  second  precinct  along 
tiie  "levee"  —  the  tough  precinct.  Given  proper 
management,  strict  disc^line  and  law  abiding  ex- 
ample, it  could  be  made,  and  ought  to  be  made, 
one  of  the  "finest"  forces  in  the  world.  Thugs 
and  thieves,  within  the  past  two  years,  through 
the  manipulation  of  the  civil  service  law,  have 
been  admitted  to  its  ranks,  to  its  everlasting 
disgrace  and  that  of  the  usurped  appointing  power. 

The  number  of  arrests  in  1897  for  those  of- 
fences from  the  perpetrators  of  which  the  po- 
lice are  charged  with  receiving  protection  money, 
was  less  than  in  any  of  the  previous  years 
since  1895,  notwithstanding  the  increase  in  pop- 
ulation, according  to  the  school  census,  from 
1,616,635  in  1896,  to  1,851,588  in  1898,  an  in- 
crease in  round  numbers  of  234,000. 

The  following  is  the  number  of  arrests  for 
the  years  1894,  1895,  1896  and  1897  for  offences 
as  named,  viz.: 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  39 

1894.       1895.       1896.       1897. 
Cock  fighting 156  69      

Decoy     to     gambling 

houses  

Disorderly 49,072     44,450     50,641     45,844 

Inmates  of  assigna- 
tion houses 53  53  92  14 

Inmates  of  disorderly 

houses 21  105  205  181 

Inmates   of   gambling 

houses 879       1,802       2,535  725 

Inmates  of  houses  of 

ill  fame 2,516       2,894       5,547       1,531 

Inmates  of  opium  dens      943       1,112  528  253 

Keeping      assignation 

houses   17  5        15  19 

Keeping  disorderly 
houses 39  28  30  139 

Keeping       gaming 

houses 238  300  310  155 

Keeping  houses  of  ill 

fame 174  210  241  648 

Robbery 1,072       1,099       i'083       1,200 

Violation  saloon  ordi- 
nance        717      1,283       1.359         559 


40  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

In  1897,  as  compared  with  1896,  there  was  a  de- 
crease of  78  in  the  number  of  arrests  of  inmates 
of  assignation  houses,  24  of  the  inmates  of  disor- 
derly houses,  1,810  of  the  inmates  of  gambhng 
houses,  4,016  of  the  inmates  of  houses  of  ill  fame, 
275  of  the  inmates  of  opium  dens,  155  of  the  keep- 
ers of  gaming  houses,  and  800  for  violation  of 
saloon  ordinances.  That  these  offenses  had  not 
decreased  in  point  of  perpetration  is  a  fact,  pat- 
ent to  observation  and  well  known  to  the  people. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  arrests  for  keeping  disorderly 
houses  increased  109,  and  for  keeping  houses  of  ill 
fame  407.  In  the  year  1896,  when  some  effort 
was  made  to  keep  the  police  out  of  politics,  the 
total  arrests  were  13,167  more  than  in  1897,  when 
the  police  force  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  a 
political  machine,  which  sought  to'  erase  the  appli- 
cation of  the  civil  law  to  its  government.  In  1896 
the  inmates  suffered  arrest,  but  in  1897  the  policy 
of  arresting  fewer  inmates  and  more  keepers,  except 
of  gaming  houses,  seems  to  have  been  inaugurated. 
"The  keepers"  are  more  able  to  pay  than  the  in- 
mates.    For  every  dollar  collected  from  inmates,  the 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  41 

keepers  are  able  to  pay  ten,  or  fifty  dollars  if  nec- 
essary. From  these  figures  it  is  clear  that  the 
practice  of  assessments  for  police  protection  was 
maintained  principally  against  keepers  in  1897,  and 
that  few  inmates,  comparatively,  refused  to  pay  in 
that  year,  while  a  large  number  of  keepers  of  im- 
moral and  gambling  houses  were  tardy  in  their  pay- 
ments, consequently,  the  former  were  not  arrested, 
while  the  latter  were. 

What  the  figures  for  the  year  1898  will  reveal  is 
as  yet  unknown. 

Not  only  is  crime  thus  tolerated  by  the  police, 
but  its  chief  officials  assume,  also,  to  define  the 
boundaries  of  the  districts  in  which  it  may  be  freely 
and  safely  perpetrated. 

The  Chief  of  Police,  testifymg  before  a  legis- 
lative investigating  committee,  said :  "Now,  any 
fellow  who  wants  to  bet  on  the  races  or  anything 
of  that  sort  cannot  be  allowed  to  do  so  this  side 
of  Jackson  street,  because  we  don't  want  this  sec- 
tion of  the  town  polluted  with  this  class  of  things. 
We  want  the  boys  who  have  an  inclination  to  bet 
on  horse  races  to  go  south." 


42  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Q.  What  have  you  got  against  the  people  south 
of  Jackson  street? 

A. .  I  Hke  them. 

Q.  Is  that  the  reason  you  wanted  that  stuff  to 
go  down  there? 

A.  Things  are  very  Hvely  in  the  lower  part  of 
the  town,  everything  has  a  thrifty  appearance,  and 
everything 

Q.  You  mean  south  of  Jackson  street? 

A.  North  of  Jackson — and  things  up  south  of 
Jackson  are  virtually  dead — there  is  nothing  going 
on  at  all,  and  the  stores  are  all  empty.  There  is 
nothing  doing,  and  the  property,  is  depreciating  in 
value,  and  the  object  was  to  liven  things  up  a  little 
bit." 

That  part  of  the  city  south  of  Jackson  boule- 
vard to  Sixteenth  street,  and  from  State  street  on 
the  east  to  the  river  on  the  west,  embraces  the  tough 
part  of  the  second  precinct  of  the  second  police  dis- 
trict. In  the  year  1897  of  the  total  number  of  ar- 
rests of  women  and  girls  in  the  city,  17,624  in  num- 
ber, 8,957,  or  over  50  per  cent,  were,  as  the  police 
term   it,   "run   in"    from   this   police   district.      How 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  43 

often  the  same  women  were  arrested  and  re-arrested 
it  is  impossible  to  say,  or  whether  they  were 
"pinched"  oftener  than  once  in  the  same  night.  Of 
this  latter  number  7,364  were  discharged  by  the  mag- 
istrates, but  the  larger  number  contributed  one  dol- 
lar each  to  the  justice  for  signing  a  bail  bond  for 
their  appearance  for  trial.  In  addition,  300  women, 
known  as  "women  lodgers,"  were  also  "run  in"  in 
this  district  in  1897.  Of  these  unfortunates  1,746 
were  fined ;  140  held  to  the  criminal  court ;  193  re- 
leased on  peace  bonds ;  209  sent  to  the  house  of 
correction;  10  held  as  witnesses;  10  were  insane; 
7  destitute,  and  23  were  sick  and  sent  to  the  hos- 
pital. Of  this  total  number  of  arrests  of  women 
and  women  lodgers,  9,257  in  number,  in  this  police 
district  in  1897,  only  2,288,  or  about  39  per  cent 
were  convicted  of  ofifenses  by  police  magistrates, 
while  61  per  cent  of  them  were  discharged. 

Of  the  total  number  of  persons  arrested  through- 
out the  city  in  1897,  83,680  in  number,  55,020  were 
discharged  by  the  police  courts,  18,017  were  fined, 
4,138  held  on  criminal  charges,  and  2,947  bound 
over  to  keep  the  peace.      The  remainder  were  sent 


44  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

to  various  homes,  refuges,  asylums  and  humane 
societies.  Over  50  per  cent  of  those  arrested  were 
discharged.  The  percentage  of  those  who  fur- 
nished bail  for  their  appearance,  it  is  difficult  to 
ascertain.  That  the  practice  exists  is  too  well 
known  to  be  proven,  that  a  division  of  these  bail 
bond  fees  is  made  between  the  magistrate  and 
the  police ;  the  police  furnishing  the  victims,  the  straw 
bailor  his  signature  to,  and  the  justice  his  ap- 
proval of,  the  bond.  The  latter  collects  his  fee 
and  divides  with  the  officers,  while  the  straw 
bailor  exacts  his  compensation  in  proportion  tj 
the  ability  of  the  victim  to  pay,  then  hands  over 
a  share  to  the  arresting  officers. 

That  such  persecution  should  exist  in  a  civ- 
ilized community  is  a  disgrace  to  its  civilization, 
that  public  officers  should,  for  one  moment,  be 
permitted  to  engage  in  such  hideous  traffic  in  the 
liberties  of  their  fellows,  is  a  scandal  upon  the 
administration  of  justice,  and  that  executive  offi- 
cers of  the  law,  sworn  to  its  enforcement,  should 
be  ignorant  of  the  infamy  of  such  arrests,  or 
knowingly  permit  them  to  be  made,  is  malfeasance 
in  office,  and  subversion  of  civil  rights. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  45 

The  portion  of  the  fines  (not  by  statute 
appropriated  for  other  purposes)  assessed  upon, 
and  collected  from,  this  class  of  unfortunates  by 
the  justices,  is  required  by-  the  ordinances  to  be 
paid  to  the  city  at  the  close  of  each  and  every 
month,  and  is  to  be  apportioned  by  the  city  authori- 
ties as  the  statutes  and  ordinances  require.  The  sal- 
aries of  the  police  magistrates  are  fixed  by  agree- 
ment with  the  city.  These  magistrates  are  chosen 
bi-ennially  after  the  election  of  a  Mayor,  by  that 
officer,  from  the  appointed  justices  of  the  peace, 
and  are  generally  of  the  same  political  faith  as  is 
the  appointing  authority.  The  system  is  a  blot 
upon  the  impartial  administration  of  justice.  It  has 
become  a  byword  among  the  people  as  a  malodorous 
cesspool. 

From  the  evidence  heard  before  a  legislative 
committee,  that  committee  reported  "that  the  pres- 
ent system  of  justice,  or  police  courts,  as  run,  is 
a  disgrace  to  the  present  civilization.  It  shows 
that  justice  courts  will  open  in  the  night  time, 
policemen  will  go  out  and  drag  in  men  and 
women,  100  and  200,  and  even  more  at  a  time;  that 


46  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

they  are  refused  a  trial  at  night,  required  to  give  a 
bond  for  which  the  justice  charges  them  one  dollar; 
that  professional  bondsmen  are  in  attendance  who 
will  collect  another  dollar,  and  oftentimes  much 
more,  from  the  poor  unfortunate  to  go  on  his  or 
her  bond  until  morning,  thus  making  several  hun- 
dred dollars  ofttimes  in  a  night  to  the  police  justices 
and  other  officers  connected  with  the  court,  and  this 
is  done,  as  your  committee  believe,  from  the  evi- 
dence, for  the  purpose  of  making  money  for  the 
police  justice,  the  professional  bondsman,  and  the 
police  officer  in  charge  of  the  arrest." 

These  magistrates  are  required  to  report  at  the 
"close  of  each  day's  business,"  but  their  night  ar- 
rests are  construed  by  them  as  not  following  within 
the  definition  of  "a.  day's  business."  The  fees  arising 
from  them  are  not,  therefore,  reported. 

Civic  bodies  have  denounced  in  the  bitterest 
terms  the  evils  of  this  system,  and  in  a  recent  may- 
oralty message  to  the  Common  Council,  in  itself 
the  hotbed  of  boodleism,  it  is  said,  "The  justice  shop 
system  with  all  its  necessarily  attendant  scandals  is 
about  to  be  wiped  out." 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  47 

That  desirable  result  awaits  legislative  action.  The 
general  assembly,  if  it  has  any  respect  for  human 
rights,  for  commendable  municipal  government,  for 
the  performance  of  its  sworn  duty,  will  lay  aside 
the  struggle  in  legislative  halls  for  political  ascend- 
ancy, and  hasten  the  day  when  this  festering  sore 
shall  have  applied  to  it  an  instrument  of  eradica- 
tion which  it  alone  can  waeld.  It  is  proper  to  add 
that  since  the  foregoing  lines  were  written  the  night 
fees  are  better  accounted  for,  vmder  an  agreement 
between  the  magistrates  and  the  city  by  which  the 
magistrates'  salaries  are  raised,  as  an  inducement  to 
them  to  be  honest. 

The  appropriations  for  the  year  1897,  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  police  force,  amounted  to  $3,356,- 
910.       Other  sources  of  income  amounted  to  $17,- 

635-03- 

The  salary  warrants  drawn  against  this  fund 
amounted  to  $3,290,296.26;  for  other  expenses, 
$167,369.63,  making  a  total  of  warrants  drawn  of 
$3,457,665.89,  leaving  a  deficit  of  $83,392.84. 

The  total  income  of  the  city  for  the  year  1897 
from    saloon   licenses   was   about   $3,000,000.      The 


48  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

saloons  are,  therefore,-  the  poHcemen's  great  finan- 
cial friends  in  more  ways  than  one,  and  largely 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  department. 


CHAPTER  III. 

All  Night  Saloons — Character  of — Thieves, 
Thugs  and  Prostitutes  in — Visitors — Country 
Buyers,  Tr^\nsients,  Delegates,  Youth  and 
Old  Age — Women  in — Character  of — Base- 
ment Saloons — Scenes  in — Private  Rooms — 
Scenes  in  All  Night  Saloons — Dancing — 
Music  —  Morning  Hours  —  Robberies,  Etc., 
Planned  —  Girls  Entrapped  —  Young  Men 
Ruined — Quarrels — Raids  —  Drinking  —  Sur- 
roundings OF — Houses  of  III  Fame — Assigna- 
tion Houses — Slumming  Parties — Fads — Sal- 
vation AND  Volunteer  Army — Inmates  of — 
How  Managed — Practices  in — Superstitions — 
Luck  Powders — Sources  of  Supply — Patrons 
OF — Wholesale  House  Entertainers — Police 
Protection — Diseases — Attempts  at  Reform 
— People  Indifferent. 

The  breeding  ground  of  disorder  and  crime  is 
to  be  found  in  the  all  night  saloons. 

Despite  the  stringent  ordinances  prohibiting  the 
"open  door"  after  midnight,  in  the  most  dissolute 
districts  throughout  the  city,  along  the  streets  and 
avenues    of    the    north,    west    and    south    divisions, 


50  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

under  ground  and  on  its  surface,  these  dens  invite 
the  depraved  of  both  sexes  to  enter,  remain,  dissi- 
pate and  carouse  through  the  night.  Murders,  rob- 
beries and  assaults  are  the  necessary  outcome  of 
the  unHmited  drinking,  the  ribald  language,  the 
senseless  jealousies,  and  the  heated  passions  of  the 
motley  crowds  which  are  at  all  times  the  fascinated 
patrons  of  these  joints.  A  more  rigid  rule  has  re- 
cently been  applied  to  the  larger  of  the  down  town, 
or  business  district,  basement  saloons.  Music  is 
prohibited,  and  the  closing  midnight  hour  respected. 
These  are  but  the  depots  for  the  all  night  saloons. 
When  they  close,  the  gathered  crowds  of  dissolute 
women  dissolve  and  betake  themselves  to  the  after 
midnight  haunts,  there  to  continue  their  calling — the 
solicitation  of  male  visitors  for  drinks,  meals  and 
the  ultimate  purpose  of  their  solicitation — prostitu- 
tion. The  male  frequenters  of  these  resorts  be- 
long to  all  classes  of  society.  The  "steady"  visitors 
are  thieves,  thugs,  pickpockets,  gamblers,  variety 
actors,  "rounders,"  that  large  and  constantly  grow- 
ing class  in  great  cities  which  is  ceaselessly  observ- 
ing  the    shady   side   of   life,    "seeing   the   elephant," 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  51 

and  not  infrequently  becoming  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  beast,  and  pimps,  who  fatten  upon  the  sin- 
ful earnings  of  abandoned  women,  whose  fondness 
for  their  masters  increases  in  proportion  to  the  vio- 
lence the  masters  visit  upon  their  slaves.  The  tran- 
sient custom  is  comprised  of  not  only  the  old  round- 
er, but  also  of  those  of  younger  experience,  burst- 
ing, or  not  far  advanced,  into  manhood;  those  who 
with  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  ways  and  wickedness 
of  the  world,  more  than  their  years  warrant,  are  out 
for  a  "good  time ;"  the  observer  of  those  ways ;  the 
"chiels"  who  are  among  them  taking  notes ;  clerks, 
cabmen  and  their  "hauls ;"  the  country  buyer  under 
the  guidance  of  the  entertainer  of  the  wholesale 
house  with  whom  the  buyer  is  dealing;  the  dele- 
gates to  conventions,  out  to  view  the  town ;  the 
passer  through  the  burg  who  has  heard  of  the 
lights  and  shadows  of  Chicago ;  the  swallow-tailed 
youth,  and  the  middle-aged  gentleman  fresh  from 
escorting  to  her  home  the  virtuous  female  compan- 
ion of  the  evening's  entertainment,  the  melo- 
drama, the  opera,  or  the  social  function.  The 
women  range   from  the  one  who  has  just    "started 


52  Chicago,  Satan^s  Sanctum. 

out"  to  the  most  despicable  and  depraved  member 
of  the  sex.  The  former  is  the  observed  of  all 
observers,  the  object  of  conspicuous  attention,  and 
a  veritable  prize  to  be  won  by  the  most  dashing 
attack  and  the  most  liberal  offer.  She  is  under 
the  tuition  of  her  female  guide,  who  instructs  her 
"what  she  has  to  do  that  she  may  not  be  raw  in 
her  entertainment." 

The  basement  saloons  in  the  down  town  district 
with  their  brilliant  electric  lighting  equipment, 
their  reflecting  mirrors  and  hardwood  finishings, 
combine,  in  most  instances,  the  facilities  of  the  rum 
shop  and  the  restaurant. 

Here,  from  noon  hour  of  the  day  until  midnight, 
come  and  go  the  "sporty"  women,  who  have  not 
yet  reached  the  lower  degree  of  a  brothel,  the 
"roomers,"  "the  cruisers"  of  the  street,  the  so-called 
keepers  of  manicure  parlors,  baths  and  dressmaking 
establishments,  all  bent  upon  a  "mash"  in  its  broad- 
est sense,  or  a  "pick  up"  of  any  male  greenhorn, 
or  sport,  who  can  be  ensnared  by  their  wiles. 
Maintaining  a  semblance  of  decorum,  they  pass  the 
earlier  hours   of  the  evening  in   drinking   with   the 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  53 

"guests"  and  in  flitting  about  from  table  to  tabic, 
with  which  each  place  is  abundantly  supplied. 
The  conversation  is  loud,  and  at  times  boisterous. 
Its  subject  matter  is  beyond  repetition  in  polite 
circles.  Lecherous  glances,  libidinous  gestures,  open 
invitations,  characterize  the  behavior  of  the  audi- 
ence. Sometimes  personal  liberties  are  attempted, 
but  invariably  suppressed  by  the  management.  From 
the  private  rooms  come  sounds  of  hilarity,  and  the 
intermixture  of  words  of  protest,  inducement  and 
vulgarity.  The  withdrawals  of  couples  are  marked, 
and  their  early  return  and  ruffled  appearance  sug- 
gest patronage  of  not  distant  "hotels,"  where  no 
questions  are  asked.  Generally,  as  the  midnight 
hour  approaches,  the  crowd  decreases,  signs  of  in- 
toxication increase,  and  the  exodus  to  the  all  night 
resorts  is  about  completed  as  that  hour  is  struck. 

When  the  downtown  basement  resorts  close,  the 
profitable  work  of  the  all  night  joints  commences. 
The  attendants  in  them  are  joined  by  squads  from 
the  more  pretentious  and  less  favored  half-night 
competitors.  These  resorts,  as  a  rule,  are  all 
equipped   with  private   rooms,   and   many   of   them, 


54  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

in  summer,  have  a  so-called  garden  attached.  Some 
have  vaudeville  performances  to  attract  crowds, 
which  end  after  the  midnight  hour.  Many  have  a 
"Ladies'  Entrance,"  but  most  visitors  pass  through 
the  bar  to  the  sitting  room  beyond.  The  so-called 
music  of  the  cracked  piano  and  strident  male  voices 
now  commences,  and  the  hat  is  passed  around  by 
the  artists  and  performers,  for  contributions  for 
payment  for  their  services,  the  "house"  paying  noth- 
ing for  such  services,  but  permitting  the  artists 
to  "work"  the  crowd.  Boys  of  sixteen,  and  under, 
join  in  the  gaieties  as  buck,  wing  and  jig  dancers, 
and  also  pass  the  hat.  As  the  hours  lengthen,  as 
the  liquor  begins  its  effect,  freedom  of  action  en- 
larges, and  restraint  is  removed.  Those  attitudes 
at  table  indicative  of  respectability  are  abandoned 
for  others  hinting  at  the  widest  license,  or  actually, 
which  is  not  infrequently  the  case,  illustrating  that 
license,  so  far  as  familiarities  of  the  person  are  con- 
cerned. The  dance  begins,  with  all  its  contortions 
of  the  body  derived  from  the  couche-couchee  exhi- 
bitions of  the  World's  Fair  times,  enlarged  upon  by 
the  grossness  of  the  two-step  waltz   of  the   slums. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  55 

Strolling  bands  of  negro  musicians,  scraping  the 
violin  and  strumming  the  guitar  and  mandolin,  or 
the  home  orchestra,  composed  of  these  dusky  min- 
strels, add  their  alleged  harmonies  to  the  occasion, 
and,  with  nasal  expression,  roll  of  coon  songs  in 
the  popular  rag  time,  with  their  intimations  of  free 
love,  warmth  of  passion  and  disregard  of  moral 
teachings.  At.  times,  with  assumed  pathos  and 
mock  dignity  they  warble  a  sentimental  song  with 
some  allusion  to  "Mother,"  "Home,"  or  "Just  Tell 
Them  That  You  Saw  Me."  The  spree  goes  on, 
with  fresh  additions  from  the  bagnios.  Women 
with  the  most  repulsive  signs  of  prolonged  dissi- 
pation, of  advanced  disease,  with  the  upper  parts 
of  the  body  exposed,  not  perhaps  more  than  is  cus- 
tomary at  a  fashionable  charity  ball,  join  in  with 
salacious  abandon.  These  women,  in  .the  phrase  of 
the  Bard  of  Avon,  belong  to  the  class  of  the  "cus- 
tom shrunk,"  of  one  of  whom  a  Roman  satirist  wrote : 
"  *  *  *  but  now. 
That  life  is  flagging  at  the  goal,  and  like 
An  unstrung  lute,  her  limbs  are  out  of  tune, 
She  is  become  so  lavish  of  her  presence, 


56  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

That  being  daily  swallowed  by  men's  eyes 
They  surfeit  at  the  sight. 

She's  grown  companion  to  the  common  streets — 
Want  her  who  will,  a  stater,  a  three  obolo  piece, 
Or  a  mere  draught  of  wine,  brings  her  to  hand ! 
Nay !  place  a  silver  stiver  in  your  palm. 
And,  shocking  tameness  !  She  will  stoop  forthwith 
To  pick  it  out." 
As  the  morning  hours  draw  nigh  blear-eyed  men 
and    women    in   all    stages   of   intoxication,    creep   to 
their  holes  to  sleep  away  the  day  for  a  renewal  of 
their  orgies  when  darkness  again  falls. 

In  these  all  night  saloons  robberies  and  bur- 
glaries are  planned,  and  hold-ups  arranged  for.  To 
them  young  girls  are  enticed  when  homeward  bound 
from  summer  gardens  and  midwinter  balls.  Plans 
are  laid  for  their  ruin  through  drink,  and  the  ex- 
citement of  an  experience  new  to  them,  which  hide 
from  their  view  all  danger  signals.  Women  are 
beaten  and  stabbed  in  them.  Here  young  men  begin 
their  careers  of  dissipation,  of  lechery,  and,  perhaps, 
of  crime,  amid  surroundings  so  contrary  to  the 
examples  of  home  life,  that  before  they  are  aware 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  57 

of  it,  they  have  become  hopelessly  enamored  of  what 
is  termed  a  sporting  life. 

The  flippantly  spoken  word  provokes  a  heated 
reply,  a  jealous  woman,  surcharged  with  drink,  pre- 
cipitates a  squabble  that  swells  into  a  free  fight,  a 
free  fight  brings  an  indiscriminate  firing  of  revol- 
vers, and  the  consequent  death — the  murder — of 
some  of  the  rioters  follows.  Then,  and  not  until 
then,  do  the  police  raid  the  place.  For  a  few 
weeks  it  is  kept  under  the  ban,  but  gradually  the 
law's  grip  is  relaxed,  signs  of  the  old  life  revive, 
and  soon  the  same  scenes  made  more  joyous  and 
boisterous  at  the  "new  opening"  are  again  enacted, 
to  run  the  same  course  until  another  felony  is  com- 
mitted, and  another  temporary  closing  of  the  doors 
enforced. 

That  the  all  night  saloon  where  such  depravity 
is  permitted  to  hold  sway  is  a  menace  to  the 
peace,  the  sobriety,  and  the  safety  of  the  commu- 
nity, is  a  self  evident  proposition. 

A  minister  in  one  of  his  sermons  said,  "The 
police  wank  when  you  call  their  attention  to  the  fact 
that  hundreds  of  saloons  are  running  wide  open  all 


58  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

night.  It  is  after  midnight  that  the  majority  of 
the  crimes  are  committed,  and  yet  these  places  are 
allowed  to  run  after  hours,  and  have  the  protection 
of  the  police." 

The  beardless  boy  and  the  habitual  drunkard  are, 
alike,  supplied  with  drink  without  question.  The 
former  is  flattered  by  being  called  "a  dead  game 
sport,"  and  the  latter  tickled  with  the  oft-bestowed 
title  of  "old  sport." 

Many  of  these  notorious  dens  are  located  in  the 
midst  of  a  forest  of  houses  of  ill  fame.  The  de- 
praved inmates  of  these  houses,  partly  clad,  are  the 
most  indecent  visitors  to  the  all  night  saloons. 
Perched  upon  the  bar,  or  peering  out  from  the  pri- 
vate wine  rooms,  they  shout  their  infamous  lan- 
guage at  the  visitors,  with  invitations  to  indulgence 
in  the  most  bestial  of  practices. 

Slumming  parties,  composed  of  respectable  men 
and  women  whose  morbid  curiosity  has  been  aroused 
by  tales  of  the  inconceivable  vices  forming  the 
night-life  of  the  demi-monde,  are  not  infrequently 
foimd  "going  down  the  line"  dropping  into  the 
houses  of  prostitution,  viewing  the  bar,  the  private 


'  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  59 

rooms,  the  dance  hall,  the  crap  games  and  the  vicious 
surroundings  of  the  all  night  pest  holes.  To  slum 
has,  in  a  measure,  become  a  fashionable  fad.  Its 
purpose  is,  not  to  carry  into  these  haunts  the  ex- 
ample of  a  better  life,  but  to  cater  to  a  dangerous 
spirit  of  inquiry,  upon  the  principle  that  excite- 
ment, even  though  it  be  found  in  the  midst  of  the 
garbage  boxes  of  vice,  is  relished  now  and  then  by 
the  best  of  mankind.  The  only  indication  of  a 
world  outside,  in  which  Christian  principles  prevail, 
is  occasionally  to  be  found,  when  some  of  the  women 
garbed  in  the  simple  uniform  of  either  the  Salva- 
tion or  Volunteer  Army,  engaged  in  rescue  work, 
or  in  scattering  a  hopeful  word,  through  the  medium 
of  their  publications,  pass  among  the  crov/d,  receiv- 
ing in  most  instances  respectful  attention,  and,  at 
times,  but  rarely,  a  jeer  from  some  drunken  sot  or 
wrecked  woman. 

The  houses  of  ill  fame,  whose  stained  glass  win- 
dows with  suggestive  female  figures  in  the  nude 
advertise  the  abode  of  the  scarlet  woman,  are  as 
luxuriously  furnished  as  is  the  home  of  the  wealthy 
and  respectable  citizen.       These  "creatures  of  sale," 


6o  .  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

as  Shakespeare  puts  it,  are  as  clearly  distinguished 
ill  public  as  members  of  the  demi-monde,  as  if  the 
Julian  laws  were  in  operation  in  Chicago.  In  early 
Rome,  under  these  laws,  the  courtesan  was  com- 
pelled to  dye  her  hair  blue  or  yellow.  Like  the 
Grecian  courtesan  whose  distinctive  mark  of  her 
calling  was  blonde  hair,  the  strumpet  of  today  gen- 
erally favors  a  fashion  coming  down  from  the  past 
ages.  The  passer-by  of  these  abodes  of  sensuality 
is  invited  by  open  solicitation  or  unmistakable  ges- 
ture to  enter  them,  especially  by  the  more  degraded 
of  the  women.  A  studied  decorum  is  maintained 
in  some  of  the  parlors  of  the  older  establishments, 
presided  over  by  a  proprietress  advanced  in  years, 
plentiful  in  wealth,  and  dictatorial  in  management. 
Harsh  rules  are  prescribed  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  condition  of  slavery  into  which  the  girls  have 
fallen.  Debts  to  the  house  tie  them  to  it  by  bands 
too  strong  to  be  easily  broken,  in  what  are  termed 
the  aristocratic  branches  of  this  nefarious  trade. 
These  women  are  none  the  less  free  from  indul- 
gence in  unnatural  practices  than  are  those  of 
houses  of  reputed  lower  degrees  of  depravity.    White 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  6i 

and  colored  alike  revel  in  the  same  scenes  of  car- 
nality which,  fragments  of  history  state,  prevailed 
in  the  declining  days  of  Rome  and  of  Greece.  The 
inmates  of  the  lowest  of  these  houses,  both  in 
dress,  or  in  the  absence  of  it,  and  in  deportment, 
follow  the  habits  of  the  Dicteriades,  or  low  down 
prostitues,  of  Piraeus  in  the  time  of  Pericles. 
Their  appearance  in  the  reception  parlors  in  a  state 
of  nudity,  and  their  filthiness  in  practice  is  a  re- 
newal of  the  habits  of  the  Lesbian  lovers  of  the 
fifth  century ;  or  of  the  flute  players  of  the  Athe- 
nian banquets,  accounts  of  whose  indecent  dancing 
and  depraved  ways  are  found  in  the  most  erotic 
chapters  in  ancient  literature.  From  them  come  the 
terms  applying  to  the  devotees  in  these  days  of 
sodomitic  indulgence,  forming  part  of  the  slang  of 
the  neighborhood  where  they  live  a  debauched  and 
beastly  existence. 

The  superstitions  of  the  Grecian  and  Roman 
courtesan  are  carried  into  the  beliefs  of  those  of 
modern  days.  What  the  philters  or  love  charms 
were  to  the  former,  luck  powders  are  to  the  latter. 
They  are  known  along  the  levee  as  "Sally  White's 


62  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Brand"  and  "Sally  White's  Mixed  Luck."  The 
former  is  regarded  as  particularly  lucky.  It  is  a 
compound  of  "Sally's"  own  prescription,  and  is 
secretly  sprinkled  on  the  floor,  at  stated  periods, 
as  luck  is  sought  after,  or  is  burned  in  a  room  and 
the  fumes  inhaled.  The  latter  is  a  mixture  of  per- 
fumed oils  and  is  used  in  the  bath.  The  women 
are  the  frequent  buyers  of  Sally's  prescriptions, 
avoiding  purchasing  on  a  Friday. 

The  sources  from  which  come  the  supply  to  the 
ranks  of  courtesans,  whether  inmates  of  the  aris- 
tocratic, the  middle,  or  the  lowest  grades  of  their 
temples  of  vice,  are  many,  various  and  damnable. 
Aside  from  the  mere  desire  to  gratify  passion, 
which  medical  writers  maintain  constitutes  but  a 
small  percentage  of  those  who  join  the  army  of 
prostitutes,  attributable  to  an  innate  sense  of  virtue 
in  the  modern  woman,  cabmen,  in  spite  of  the  mu- 
nicipal ordinances,  have  been  known  to  drive  women 
entering  the  city  to  these  brothels  on  the  pretext 
they  were  hotels.  The  procuress  is  at  work  all  the 
while. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  63 

"Thou  hold'st  a  place  for  which  the  paind'st  fiend 
Of  hell  would  not  in  reputation  change. 
Thou  art  the  damned  doorkeeper  to  every 
Coistril  that  comes  inquiring  for  his  Tib; 
To  the  choleric  fisting  of  every  rogue 
Thy  ear  is  liable ;  thy  food  is  such 
As  hath  been  belched  on  by  infected  lungs." 
The  department  stores,  in  which  starvation  wages 
are  paid  to  girls  and  women,  who  are  subjected  to 
the    attentions    of    designing   men,    invited    to   lunch, 
induced  to  drink ;  whose  love  for  dress  and  whose 
vanity  are  worked  upon ;  those  whose  want  of  edu- 
cation   in    the    relations    of   the    sexes   brings    about 
their  speedy   fall ;   the   servant   turned   out   from   her 
employment  ruined  by  her  employer  or  his  son ;  the 
seamstress ;   the   victims   of  unhappy   marriages   and 
cruel  homes ;  those  compelled  by  poverty  or  neces- 
sity,    and     who     support     dependent     relatives ;     the 
"chippies"  of  modern  days;  the  massage  parlor  grad- 
uates; all   contribute  their  distressed  quotas  to  this 
ever  increasing  tribe  of  prostitutes. 

It  gathers  in  recruits  from  the  overflow  of  the 
assignation   houses,    which    are   scattered   over   this 


64  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

city  in  astonishing  profusion.  They  are  found  in 
boulevard  castles  and  in  back  alley  huts.  They  do 
not  differ  in  character  from  those  of  all  cities. 
Through  them  come  the  cast-off  women,  who,  hav- 
ing satisfied  the  temporary  infatuation  of  their  se- 
ducers, find  themselves  victims  of  false  promises, 
and  the  graduates  from  homes  wrecked  by  the  dis- 
covery of  their  daylight  intrigues.  So  relentless  a 
warfare  is  waged  upon  these  private,  and  in  some 
instances  most  exclusive,  resorts,  by  the  lynx-eyed 
police,  that  in  the  year  1897,  nineteen  keepers  of 
such  places  were  arrested !  Some  improvement  is 
noticeable  in  their  suppression  from  the  fact  that 
in  1894  seventeen,  in  1895  five,  and  in  1896  fifteen 
keepers  were  arrested !  Interference  with  this  style 
of  accommodation  is,  therefore,  possible  in  Chicago, 
at  or  about  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  millennium ! 
Singular  to  say  there  are  moralists  who  assign 
the  prostitute  a  position  of  usefulness  in  modern 
civilization.  One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  Eng- 
lish writers,  in  tracing  the  effects  of  Christianity 
upon  mankind  and  its  beneficent  influences  in  social 
life,  says :     "Under  these    circumstances    there    has 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  65 

arisen  in  society  a  figure  which  is  certainly  the 
most  mournful,  and,  in  some  respects,  the  most 
awful  upon  which  the  eye  of  the  moralist  can  dwell. 
That  unhappy  being  whose  very  name  is  a  shame 
to  speak,  who  counterfeits,  with  a  cold  heart,  the 
transports  of  affection,  and  submits  herself  as  a 
passive  instrument  of  lust,  who  is  scorned  and  in- 
sulted as  the  vilest  of  her  sex,  and  doomed  for  the 
most  part  to  disease  and  abject  wretchedness,  and 
an  early  death,  appears  in  every  age  as  the  per- 
petual symbol  of  the  degradation  and  the  sinfulness 
of  man.  Herself  the  supreme  type  of  vice,  she  is 
ultimately  the  most  efficient  guardian  of  virtue. 
But  for  her  the  unchallenged  purity  of  countless 
happy  homes  would  be  polluted,  and  not  a  few,  who 
in  the  pride  of  their  untempted  chastity  think  of 
her  with  an  indignant  shudder,  would  have  known 
the  agony  of  remorse  and  of  despair.  On  that  one 
degraded  and  ignoble  form  are  concentrated  the  pas- 
sions that  might  have  filled  the  world  with  shame. 

She  remains,  while  creeds  and  civilizations  rise 
and  fade,  the  external  priestess  of  humanity,  blasted 
for  the  sins  of  the  people." 


66  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  entertainer  of  the  wholesale  house  who  con- 
ducts his  country  customer  to  see  the  sights  of  the 
town,  whenever  and  wherever  such  sights  are  to  be 
seen,  "where  everything  goes,"  pays  the  expenses 
of  the  round  of  debauchery  from  the  fund  pro- 
vided by  his  firm;  while  from  the  floating,  passing, 
male  visitors,  no  less  than  from  the  resident  male 
dwellers,  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  come  the 
thousands  of  dollars  which  go  to  the  support  of  the 
lewd  woman  of  the  town,  from  the  street  walker, 
up  through  the  mistresses  and  the  shady  wives,  to 
the  best  dressed  and  most  brazen  wanton  in  the 
palaces — the  "swell"  houses  so  styled.  The  unre- 
vealable  indecencies  which  attend  these  infamous  re- 
sorts are  within  the  knowledge  of  the  police,  under 
any  and  every  municipal  administration.  At  times 
their  pressure  upon  these  unfortunates  is  heavier 
than  at  others.  The  necessity  of  raising  campaign 
funds,  the  personal  wants  of  the  blackmailers  of 
the  police  force,  the  revenges  to  be  gratified  for 
some  jealousy  aroused,  or  favor  refused,  all  con- 
tribute to  increase  the  weight  of  oppression.  Mean- 
while, in  the  absence  of  municipal  regulations,  which 


Chicago,  Satan^'s  Sanctum.  67 

seem  abhorrent  to  the  average  American  mind  as  a 
recognition  of  the  legaHzation  of  vice,  diseases  are 
wide  spread,  until,  in  the  language  of  a  distinguished 
physician,  the  most  destructive  of  them  have  reached 
the  blood  of  "the  best  and  noblest   families  of  the 
land."     Lecky,  in  his  History  of  European  Morals, 
speaking  of  the  horrible  effects  incident  to  the  non- 
regulation   of  houses  of    this   character,   says:     "In 
the   eyes   of   every   physician,   and,    indeed,    in    the 
eyes  of  most  continental  writers  who  have  adverted 
to  the  subject,  no  other  feature  of  English  life  ap- 
pears   so    infamous    as   the    fact   that    an    epidemic, 
which   is   one   of   the   most    dreadful    now    existing 
among  mankind,  which  communicates  itself  from  the 
guilty  husband  to  the  innocent  wife,  and  even  trans- 
mits  its  taint  to  her  offspring,   and  which  the  ex- 
perience of  other  nations  conclusively  proves  may  be 
vastly   eliminated,   should   be   suffered    to   rage    un- 
checked, because  the  legislature  refuses  to  take  of- 
ficial cognizance  of  its  existence,  or  proper  sanitary 
measures  for  its  repression." 

The  protests   of   Christian  organizations   and    of 
societies  for  the  suppression  of  vice  seem  to  be  in 


68  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

vain.  The  city  ordinances  prohibiting,  for  instance, 
the  employment  of  females  in  massage  parlors  pa- 
tronized by  men,  and  others,  intended  to  keep  the 
conduct  of  all  manufactories  of  vice  within  limits, 
if  not  to  accomplish  their  suppression,  dre  not  at- 
tempted to  be  enforced. 

Some  mitigation  of  the  evils  of  police  aggression 
has  been  brought  about,  as  has  been  observed,  by 
placing  police  magistrates  under  a  salary  sufficiently 
large  to  induce  them  to  partly  abolish  the  practice 
of  wholesale  midnight  arrests,  with  their  consequent 
fees  and  bailors'  exactions.  These  fees  are  now 
accounted  for  more  rigidly  and  paid  over  to  the 
city,  whether  they  are  the  result  of  daylight  or  mid- 
night arrests.  These  evils  are  not,  however,  wholly 
eradicated,  nor  will  they  be,  until  an  aroused  public 
sentiment  shall  give  as  much  attention,  public  serv- 
ice, and  personal  endeavor,  to  the  attainment  of  that 
most  desirable  end,  as  is  given  to  the  building  of 
an  armory,  the  establishment  of  lake  front  parks. 
Greater  Chicago,  the  passage  of  revenue  bills,  and 
the  defeat  of  the  attempt  to  obtain  public  franchises 
without  compensation  to  the  granting  municipality. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  69 

Whatever  will  tend  to  create  wealth  for  the  indi- 
vidual, to  increase  the  volume  of  trade,  or  add  to 
the  attractiveness  of  the  city  in  the  improvement 
or  adornment  of  its  public  parks,  the  energetic  and 
pushing  citizen  aids  with  his  personal  services,  and 
abundant  wealth.  Its  moral  attractions  receive,  in 
so  far  as  the  repression  of  villainy  and  of  dis- 
gusting vice  is  concerned,  but  Httle,  if  any,  personal 
or  pecuniary  assistance  from  the  people.  At  a  re- 
cent meeting  of  the  Law  Enforcement  League,  a 
clergyman,  who  had  freely  given  his  time  and  serv- 
ices in  behalf  of  the  objects  of  that  association, 
begged  for  the  paltry  sum  of  $250  with  which  to 
carry  on  the  work.  It  was  received  by  contribu- 
tion from  his  audience  after  repeated  appeals.  Had 
it  been  a  meeting  for  stock  subscriptions  to  some 
corporation  promising  large  returns,  or  for  the  pur- 
pose of  building  a  monument  to  some  former  day 
hero,  or  author,  the  appeal  would  not  have  had  to 
fall  upon  the  ears  of  the  people  repeatedly.  The 
request  would  have  been  granted  upon  its  first  pres- 
entation. "This  work,"  said  the  preacher,  "cannot 
be  carried  on  by  sympathy,  or  applause,  or  resolu- 


70  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

tions,  or  expressions  of  good  will.  There  is  noth- 
ing but  hard  cash  that  counts  in  the  practical  work 
of  enforcing  the  law," 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Re-election  of  Mayor — False  Issue  Upon  Which 
Re-elected — Vices  in  Chicago — "Blind  Pigs" 
— Protected  by  Police — Where  Situated — 
How  Conducted — Classes — Drug  Stores,  Bak- 
eries, Barns — Revenue  to  Police — Located 
Near  Univ^ersities — Lieutenant  of  Police 
Convicted  for  Protecting — Cock  Fighting — 
Bucket  Shops — Woimen  Dealers — Pool  Rooms 
— Police  Play — Pulling  of.  Farcical — Views 
of  Chief  of  Police — Players — Landlords — 
Book  Making — Alliance  Between,  and  Police 
and  Landlords — New  York  and  Chicago — Chi- 
cago Police  Force  Worst — Hold  Up  Men — 
Methods  —  Victims  —  Police  Sleep  —  Mayor's 
Felicitations,  April  ii,  1899 — Accounts  of 
Hold  Ups,  Same  Day — Classes  of  Hold-Up  Men 
— Strong  Armed  Women — Street  Car  Conduct- 
ors Robbed — Ice  Chest  and  Ovens  for  Prisons 
— Hair  Clippers — Protection  to  Criminals — 
"Safe  Blowers'  Union"  —  Fakes  —  Panel 
Houses — Badger  Games — Nude  Photographs — 
Pbscene  Literature — Confidence  Men — Di- 
ploma Mills — Gambling — Women's  Down 
Town  Clubs — Sexual  Perverts — Opium  Joints. 

That  public  opinion  can  be  aroused  on  any  ques- 
tion deemed  of  importance  to  the  municipal  wel- 
fare  finds   abundant   confirmation   in   the   history   of 


72  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Chicago,  and  that  that  opinion  can  make  itself  felt 
at  the  polls  has  but  recently  been  most  remarkably- 
demonstrated.  Admittedly  deficient,  both  by  friend 
and  foe,  in  public  assemblages  called  in  behalf  of 
its  retention  in  power;  permitting  the  violation  of 
the  law,  in  all  its  departments ;  openly  consenting 
to  the  unrestrainted  lechery  of  the  debauched  classes, 
the  wide  open  running  of  gambling  houses,  pool 
rooms  and  disorderly  houses ;  aiding  by  its  refusal, 
or  neglect,  to  stop  the  levying  by  the  police  of  pro- 
tection rates  upon  poker  rooms,  crap  games,  pool 
rooms  and  dens  of  that  class,  the  pitfalls  and  snares 
set  for  the  young  men  of  the  town ;  assessing  for 
political  purposes  the  keepers  of  disreputable  resorts 
of  all  kinds,  and  the  employes  of  the  city  under  civil 
service  rules  in  defiance  of  a  law  sternly  prohibit- 
ing that  demoralizing  practice ;  an  administration 
appealed  to,  and  received,  the  support  of  nearly  a 
majority  of  the  whole  people,  upon  one  fictitiously 
dominant  issue,  under  which  all  others  were  adroitly 
sheltered  and  wholly  hidden  from  view. 

That  issue  which  concerned  the  people  as  an  in- 
corporated body,  rather  more    than    as    individuals, 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  73 

was  practically  non-existing.  The  power  to  invade 
the  rights  of  the  people  had  been  destroyed  by  State 
legislation.  In  the  absence  of  new  legislation,  the 
extension  of  railroad  franchises  is  now  an  impossi- 
bility, except  under  the  terms  of  the  existing  char- 
ter. No  legislation  can  be  obtained  in  enlargement 
of  such  municipal  power,  until  the  next  general 
assembly  shall  have  convened  in  January,  1901,  unless 
a  special  session  should  be  called  for  that  particular 
purpose,  the  probability  of  which  is  too  remote  to 
be  considered.  Meanwhile  the  new  administration 
which  will  be  carried  on  for  the  next  two  years  by 
practically  the  same  men  as  for  the  past  two  years, 
can  find  no  refuge  behind  an  issue  of  supposedly 
overwhelming  importance  to  hide  its  neglect  of  oth- 
ers, which  affect,  if  not  directly,  yet  indirectly,  the 
financial  interests  of  the  city.  Those  matters,  to 
which  the  administration  of  the  city  must  now  give 
its  attention,  concern  the  purity  of  municipal  leg- 
islation ;  the  proper  enforcement  of  the  laws  in  all 
departments  of  the  city  government;  no  interfer- 
ence in  matters  of  education;  no  attempt  at  the 
control  of  the  civil  service  commission  in  the  strict 


74  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

enforcement  of  the  law  creating  it;  the  proper  let- 
ting of  contracts,  and  the  preservation  of  pay-rolls 
from  manipulation  and  fraudulent  swelling.  The 
purity  of  municipal  legislation  is  assured  by  the 
election  of  a  number  of  aldermen  whose  records  as 
citizens  warrant  the  prediction  that  they,  joining 
with  an  already  trusty  minority,  for  the  ensuing  year 
at  least,  will  conserve  public  rather  than  private 
interests,  guided  by  the  promptings  of  each  individ- 
ual conscience.  There  will  be  no  opportunity  to 
filch  from  them  for  party  ends,  or  for  personal  ad- 
vancement, due  public  acknowledgment  of  their 
integrity  and  ability.  But  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws  governing  municipal  administration  in  its  sev- 
eral departments ;  the  proper  disbursement  of  its 
appropriation  funds  for  street  improvements,  scav- 
enger service,  street  and  alley  cleaning,  public 
buildings  and  parks,  etc. ;  the  management  of  the 
school-board  by  its  own  officials,  free  from  po- 
litical suasion;  of  the  civil  service  commission 
along  the  lines  contemplated  by  the  law  free  from 
party  dictation,  and  the  elevation  of  the  police  force 
to  the  plane  of  its  non-political  duties,  for  the  pre- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  75 

vention  of  the  spread  of  vice  and  indecency,  the 
repression  of  crime,  the  protection  of  Hfe  and  prop- 
erty, are  all  matters,  the  non-attention  to  which  can 
no  longer  be  excused  upon  the  theory  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  first  destroying  an  attempted  private 
seizure  of  the  public  streets,  a  theory  which  has 
gone  to  its  destruction  by  the  repeal  of  an  ob- 
noxious law,  under  which  seizure  might  have  been 
accomplished. 

So  far  as  the  suppression  of  vice  is  concerned, 
the  initial  duty  of  municipal  administration  is  the 
education  of  the  police  in  their  duties  as  imposed 
upon  them  by  law.  For  years,  under  every  ad- 
ministration, with  infrequent,  feeble  attempts  at 
reform,  that  force  has  been  rapidly  becoming  a 
fleet  of  harveyized  steel  battleships,  sailing  under 
the  flaunting  flag  of  vice,  fully  armed,  and  loy- 
ally serving  the  kings  of  the  gamblers,  the  queens 
of  the  demi-monde,  and  their  conjoined  forces  of 
thieves,  confidence  men,  cappers,  prostitutes,  philan- 
derers, etc.,  etc.  It  is  not  in  the  least  fearful  of 
public  opinion.  If  wealth  can  snap  its  fingers  and 
cry  aloud   "The  public  be  d — d,"   so  can  the   force 


76  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

laugh  in  its  sleeve,  and,  aping  wealth,  echo  "To 
hell"  with  the  public. 

It  is  not  different  in  Chicago  from  what  it  is 
in  New  York.  The  temporary  disappearance  from 
the  "Tenderloin"  of  many  of  its  flagrant  vices,  and 
the  supposed  purification  of  the  police  force  follow- 
ing the  astounding  revelations  of  the  Lexow  com- 
mittee, have  given  way  under  the  ceaseless  and  in- 
sidious assaults  of  criminal  and  vicious  influences. 
A  New  York  journal  recently  said:  "The  reports 
to  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Crime  show 
that  the  city  is  in  worse  condition  than  ever  before. 
No  paper  would  dare  print  all  that  is  done  openly 
in  dens  of  vice  that  are  tolerated  by  the  police.  The 
reports  seem  almost  incredible ;  they  show  that 
with  few  exceptions  the  police  force  is  corrupt 
from  top  to  bottom.  Gambling  houses,  disorderly 
houses  and  dives  of  the  worst  description  flourish 
openly,  a  regular  schedule  of  rates  has  been  es- 
tablished which  the  police  force  charge  for  pro- 
tection. 

The  flagrancy  of  crime  which  brought  about  a 
political    revolution   five    years    ago    exists    today   as 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  77 

it  did  then.  In  some  ways  there  is  even  less  at- 
tempt at  concealment  than  there  was  in  the  ante- 
Lexow  days ;  in  others  the  vice  and  immorality  is 
more  hidden.  But  it  is  here,  and  instead  of  there 
being  one  "Tenderloin"  ulcer  on  the  city  there  are 
now  four,  each  fully  as  extended  as  was  that  old  hot- 
bed of  vice." 

What  the  police  force  of  New  York  was  before 
the  investigation  of  the  Lexow  committee,  so  the 
police  force  of  Chicago  then  was ;  and  what  the 
New  York  force  is  today,  so  is  the  Chicago  force. 
A  new  investigation  is  about  to  begin  in  New  York 
city.  Watch  its  revelations  day  after  day.  Change 
the  names,  and  for  every  police  infamy  revealed, 
every  unspeakable  vice  disclosed,  every  violation  of 
law  recorded,  their  counterparts  can  be  found  in  Chi- 
cago, intensified,  not  modified. 

The  crimes  which  these  "coppers"  should,  but 
do  not,  give  their  services  to  repress,  are  numerous, 
if  minor  in  character.  In  flagrant  cases  of  com- 
mission arrests  may  follow,  and  often  do.  It  is 
the  unused  means  of  prevention  deadened  by  the 
purchased  indifiference  of  the  officers,  that  is  the 
most  glaring  of  police  sins. 


78  /Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  location  of  "blind  pigs,"  or  those  places  in 
which  liquor  is  sold  without  a  license,  both 
within  prohibition  districts  as  well  as  without 
them,  must  either  be  known  to  ofificers  traveling 
beats  whereon  they  flourish,  or  such  officers  are 
too  ignorant  to  belong  to  the  ranks.  It  is  not  ig- 
norance of  the  officers  that  prevents  their  suppression. 
Superiors  are  paid  a  price  for  non-interference. 
The  patrolman  follows  his  orders,  permits  the  il- 
licit traffic  to  be  carried  on  by  those  who  pay  that 
price,  and  reports  only  those  who  do  not  pay  it,  but 
who  seek  to  conduct  the  prohibited  business  with- 
out contribution  to  the  permissive  fund. 

In  the  most  respectable  settlements  of  the  city, 
in  the  very  heart  of  prohibition  districts,  in  which 
there  would  be  spasms  of  protest  and  whirlwinds 
of  indignation  if  it  were  even  suggested  that  the 
lines  separating  the  prohibitive  from  the  non-pro- 
hibitive districts  should  be  abolished,  are  to  be 
found  the  highest  grade  of  the  breed  of  "blind 
pigs."  They  are  the  brilliantly  lighted,  well  ar- 
ranged, and  aristocratic  types  of  the  modern  drug- 
store, where,  as  the  evening  shades  descend,  a  band 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  79 

of  friendly  Indians  asscniljles  to  discuss  the  events 
of  the  day,  conduct  wars,  shape  the  destinies  of  na- 
tions, and  draw  their  inspiration  from  spiritus  fer- 
menti  op.,  a  drug  commonly  known,  however,  as 
whisky,  when  obtained  without  a  prescription  at  the 
bar  of  the  ordinary  licensed  saloon.  These  whisky 
jacks  express  amazement  at  the  want  of  proper 
regulation  of  the  sale  of  liquor,  while  aiding  in  its 
unlawful  traffic.  They  are  typical  Archimagos ; 
high  priests  of  hypocrisy  and  deceit  .  They  are  the 
open  mouthed  reformers  who  shout  for  a  rigorous 
application  of  the  law  for  the  regulation  of  saloons 
outside  of  their  own  prohibition  districts,  for  the 
maintenance  of  prohibition  within  those  districts, 
and  who  wink  at  their  own  infractions  of  the  license 
laws,  behind  the  prescription  case — their  private  bar. 
This  form  of  attack  upon  the  license  law  exists 
all  over  the  city,  more  so  perhaps  in  prohibition 
districts  than  without  them,  but  each  drug  store, 
as  a  rule,  has  its  patrons  from  whom  a  yearly  reve- 
nue is  derived  by  the  accommodating  and  equally 
guilty  proprietor  who  vends  his  drinks  without  com- 
pliance with  the  law. 


8o  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  other  class  of  "blind  pigs"  owes  its  exist- 
ence to  a  prearranged  bargain  between  a  policeman 
and  the  members  of  that  class,  who,  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  friends,  and  the  turning  of  a  penny, 
embark  in  the  business  without  fear  of  arrest.  As 
the  sale  of  liquor  for  use  upon  the  premises  as  a 
beverage  is  lawful  when  licensed,  every  combina- 
tion to  evade  a  license  is  not  only  an  evasion  of 
the  penalties  of  the  license  law,  but  it  is  a  conspir- 
acy to  rob  the  city  of  a  portion  of  a  large  revenue, 
sufficient  almost  to  support  the  police  force.  The 
city  is  thus  plundered  by  its  own  servants  who 
take  its  place  in  fixing  the  amount  of  the  license, 
and  who  appropriate  it  when  collected  to  their  own 
use. 

Some  of  these  institutions  are  to  be  found  in 
the  rear  of  bakeries,  in  the  costly  barns  of  the 
wealthy  classes  with  coachmen  as  bartenders,  and 
at  the  gates  of  the  silent  cities  of  the  dead. 

They  are  a  fruitful  source  of  revenue  to  the 
police,  and,  consequently,  difficult  of  discovery,  since 
their  patrons  must  be  well  known  as  non-squealers, 
and  the  police  are  too  loyal  to  turn  informers. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  Si 

They  exist  in  surrounding  country  towns  and 
in  classic  neighborhoods,  in  Evanston  and  Hyde 
Park  particularly.  Both  of  these  locahties  are  the 
seats  of  institutions  of  learning;  the  Northwestern 
University  at  the  one,  and  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago at  the  other. 

A  Lieutenant  of  Police  was  arrested  for  extort- 
ing money  for  protection  from  the  keeper  of  a  blind 
pig  in  Hyde  Park.  It  developed,  in  the  course  of 
of  his  trial,  that  he  was  to  pay  part  of  the  insur- 
ance premium  to  a  brewery  company.  To  such 
an  extent  has  this  blackmailing  scheme  gone,  that 
its  proceeds  are  distributed  not  alone  among  patrol- 
men and  superior  police  ofificials,  but  also  to  brew- 
ing companies  united  in  a  trust  afifecting  the  price 
and  the  quality  of  the  poor  man's  beverage. 

The  national  pastime  of  the  Filipinos  is  of  com- 
mon occurrence  in  Chicago,  and  escapes  the  watch- 
ful eyes  of  the  police,  although  its  uniformed  mem- 
bers pass  the  door  of  the  saloon  with  which  the 
principal  pit  is  connected.  The  entering  crowds, 
and  the  crowing  of  "birds,"  never  fail  to  announce 
the    on-coming    of    the    main,    except    to    sightless 


82  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

eyes  and  deafened  ears.  No  underground  or  out 
of  hearing  place  is  selected  for  these  exhibitions 
of  cock  fighting.  They  are  held  in  the  rear  of 
saloons,  or  in  barns  or  stables  connected  therewith 
by  covered  ways  of  approach.  One  geographical 
division  of  the  city  is  generally  pitted  against  the 
other. 

Usually  the  indignant  police,  even  with  early 
information  of  the  time  and  place  where  and  when 
this  inhuman  amusement  is  to  be  held,  arrive  upon 
the  scene  when  the  fight  has,  ended,  the  lights  ex- 
tinguished, and  the  sports  scattered.  Although  the 
city  council  possesses  the  charter  power  to  prevent 
these  disgraceful  combats,  that  power  remains  un- 
acted upon,  and  the  offense  falls  within  the  defini- 
tion of  disorderly  conduct,  the  penalty  prescribed 
by  ordinance,  upon  conviction  for  that  offense, 
being  a  fine  of  from  one  to  one  hundred  dollars. 

Bucket  shops  have  nearly  disappeared  from  the 
public  gaze.  They  are,  nevertheless,  still  carried 
on  in  secret,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  men  and 
women  to  gratify  their  natural  propensity  for  gam- 
bling.     The  active  efforts  of  one  man,  having  the 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  83 

courage  of  his  convictions  and  with  the  support 
of  a  commercial  organization,  which  is  the  only  com- 
petitor of  these  gambling  concerns,  have  kept  them 
in  comparative  subjection.  Yet,  such  is  the  re- 
sistance made  by  them,  that  this  man,  aiding  also 
in  the  discovery  and  punishment  of  gambling  in 
general,  ran  the  risk  of  the  destruction  of  his  life, 
his  home,  and  the  loss  of  the  lives  of  his  family, 
by  the  explosion  of  a  bomb  thrown  at  night  into, 
or  against,  his  house,  by  some  miscreant  or  mis- 
creants, with  the  evident  intent  of  "removing"  him 
as  an  impediment  to  the  transactions  of  their  mur- 
derous employers. 

The  police,  after  much  effort  to  discover  the 
perpetrators  of  the  outrage,  finally  dismissed  it 
from  further  examination,  upon  the  theory  that 
this  man  had  himself  "put  up  the  job,"  to  accom- 
plish the  destruction  of  his  wife  and  children, 
and  of  his  own  life.  Through  this  heroic  man's 
efforts,  together  with  those  of  a  fearless  and  out- 
spoken clergyman,  as  in  New  York,  and  not  by 
reason  of  police  assistance,  but  in  spite  of  police 
resistance,  the  convictions  in  the  criminal  court,   in 


84  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  past  year  for  gambling,  are  wholly  "due.  The 
latest  accessible  reports  show  that  in  the  year  1897 
the  number  of  places  closed  during  the  two  pre- 
ceding years  was  one  hundred  and  forty-six,  and 
that  at  the  end  of  1897  there  were  twenty-nine  still 
in  existence,  including  tape  games  and  fraudulent 
brokers'  haunts.  These  institutions  possess  a  pe- 
culiar fascination  for  women.  Three  of  them, 
patronized  wholly  by  the  female  sex,  were  found 
under  one  roof.  Of  the  leading  one,  a  writer 
in  a  city  daily  newspaper,  in  a  vivid  description  of 
its  general  surroundings,  said : 

"The  atmosphere  of  the  rooms  is  stifling  and 
poisonous.  The  odor  is  rank  with  the  effluvia 
of  bodies,  which,  in  many  cases,  present  the  ap- 
pearance that  would  justify  the  belief  that  they 
have  been  strangers  to  the  bath  for  weeks.  To  go 
into  these  rooms  out  of  the  fresh  outdoor  world  is 
to  almost  suffocate  at  first.  *  *  *  The  effects 
are  plainly  visible  in  the  faces  of  the  women.  They 
had,  with  few  exceptions,  leathery,  sallow  skins, 
drawn  and  tense  features,  hard  lines  about  the 
mouth,  and  wrinkles  between  the    eyes,    while    the 


Chicago,  Satan's  SaxXctum.  85 

eyes  themselves  had  acquired  a  restless,  half  cun- 
ning expression,  composed  of  cupidity  and  uncer- 
tainty. As  for  their  nervous  systems  they  are 
wrecks.  Take  the  hand  of  any  woman  in  those 
rooms,  especially  if  she  has  just  made  an  invest- 
ment, and  the  nervous  vibration  is  plain — her  hand 
quivers,  her  whole  body  is  tense,  her  bulging  eyes 
fix  themselves  on  the  board." 

Alluding  to  the  men  who  hang  around,  furnish- 
ing "pointers,"  and  looking  for  an  invitation  to  a 
fifteen-cent  lunch,  one  of  the  speculating  women 
said  of  them,  "These  men  are  the  lowest  creatures 
who  come  up  here ;  most  of  the  women  are  re- 
spectable, but  these  men  are  lazy,  dirty,  ignorant 
and  infinitely  low,  and  all  they  are  after  is  to  get 
money  and  a  free  meal  out  of  women." 

"The  ages  of  the  women  range  from  twenty-five 
to  seventy  years.  The  older  women  peered  anx- 
iously through  their  spectacles  at  the  board  and 
whispered  quietly  to  a  companion ;  wisps  of  ragged 
gray  hair  escaped  and  waved  below  the  little  black 
bonnet.  Heavy,  thick-soled  shoes  stuck  out  from 
the  hem  of  the  modest  black  gowns;  they  grasped 


86  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

worn  silk  reticules  in  their  nervous  fingers,  and 
got  out  the  small  sum  which,  in  most  instances, 
they  did  not  have  the  nerve  to  invest." 

Describing  the  condition  in  life  of  these  women, 
the  reporter  was  told  that  some  had  been  wealthy, 
and  were  now  poor  through  speculation;  while 
"more  than  two-thirds  are  the  mothers  of  families 
and  are  eking  out  a  little  income,  in  many  instances 
supporting  an  idle,  worthless  man,  who  should  him- 
self be  out  in  the  world  earning  a  living." 

"If  they  make  75  cents  a  day  it  is  a  big  day 
for  them,"  said  the  reporter's  informant.  "How  lit- 
tle you  realize  the  state  to  which  many  of  these 
women  are  brought!  Many  of  them  are  almost 
penniless.  Frequently  they  come  here  in  the  morn- 
ing and  borrow  money  with  which  to  begin  the  day's 
operations." 

Pool  rooms,  as  a  general  rule,  run  wide  open; 
occasionally  they  are  "closed  for  repairs"  caused 
by  a  police  raid,  forced  by  some  flagrant  outrage 
against  the  law.  They  flourish  in  the  most  public 
places,  with  no  restriction  upon  admission  to  any 
visitor.      The   daily   races   all   over  the  country  are 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  87 

posted  on  large  black  boards  covering  the  walls, 
with  a  list  of  the  horses  entered  and  a  minute  of 
the  odds  which  will  be  given  or  demanded  by  the 
house,  from  which  the  room's  judgment  of  the 
"favorite"  can  be  ascertained. 

The  money  is  handled  openly,  bet  openly,  and 
paid  openly.  City  detectives  assist  in  their  man- 
agement, and  "play  the  races."  Raids  contemplated 
by  the  police  are  tipped  off  to  the  managers,  and 
when  the  officers  arrive  the  game  has  closed. 

The  incidents  attending  an  actual  pull  are  in  the 
main  more  laughable  than  impressive.  The  "hurry 
up"  wagon  takes  its  load  away,  and  before  many 
moments  have  elapsed  the  same  faces  are  seen 
again  returning  to  the  one  attractive  spot  in  their 
daily  lives.  These  rooms  are  munificent  contribu- 
tors for  protection.  They  pay  from  $600  to  $1,000 
per  month.  They  hold  back  telegraphic  messages 
of  the  results  of  races  until  their  confederates  have 
placed  bets.  They  are  patronized  by  women  of, 
apparently,  all  classes.  In  one  raid  eighteen  women 
were  captured,  fifteen  of  whom  claimed  to  be  mar- 
ried.    All  of  them,  of  course,  gave  fictitious  names; 


88  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

three  had  babies  in  their  arms ;  three  claimed  they 
were  wives  of  pohcemen;  a  few  were  well  dressed, 
and  all  were  undoubtedly  devotees  of  gambling, 
sporting  women  who  fancied  they  had  discovered 
the  way  to  lead  an  easy  and  money-making  life. 

The  following  extract,  taken  from  the  examina- 
tion of  the  head  of  the  police  force  of  the  city, 
will  show  the  view  entertained  by  that  official  of 
the  nature  of  his  duties,  in  this  regard. 

Before  the  senatorial  committee  appointed  Jan- 
uary 6th,  1898,  to  investigate  scandals  in  connection 
with  the  police  force,  its  Chief  was  interrogated  and 
answered  as  follows,  viz. : 

Q.  How  many  pool  rooms  have  you  pulled,  how 
many  men  have  been  arrested  and  convicted  for  pool 
selling  since  you  have  been  chief? 

A.  I  understand  one  fellow  has  been  found  guilty 
and  fined  $2,000.. 

Q.  But  he  was  arrested  by  the  Sheriff  of  Cook 
County,  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  because  the 
police  would  not  do  it? 

A.  I  don't  know  whether  it  was  because  the  po- 
lice would  not  do  it,  or  because  they  could  not  do  it. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  89 

Q.  Well,  it  was  because  they  did  not  do  it.  Do 
you  mean  to  say  that  you,  as  Chief  of  Police,  with 
3,500  sworn  men 

A.  Don't  say  3,500  men.  It  is  2,500  men;  don't 
make  it  quite  so  strong. 

Q.  Do  you  say  to  this  committee,  that  with 
2,500  sworn  men  in  this  city  you  are  powerless  to 
stop  the  public  running  of  pool  rooms  in  this  city? 

A.  I  will  say  that  I  am  powerless  to  stop  a 
man  from  making  hand  books,  or  selling  pools 
confidentially  to  his  friends. 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  pool  rooms  being  con- 
ducted in  this  city  during  the  months  of  October, 
November  and  December? 

A.  I  don't  know  of  my  own  knowledge;  I  never 
was  in  one. 

Q.  Did  any  of  the  2,500  men  ever  report  any- 
thing of  that  kind  to  you? 

A.  I  never  had  any  definite  report  on  that  sub- 
ject. 

O.  They  were  giving  the  people  a  liberal  gov- 
ernment ? 

A.  Yes,  things  were  running  very  easy. 


90  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Q.  I  will  get  you  to  state  if  it  is  not  a  fact  that 
a  large  number  of  pool  rooms  were  running  openly 
with  telegraph  operators  in  the  place,  pools  were 
being  sold,  money  paid,  and  everything  running  at 
full  blast? 

A.  I  never  was  present;  I  don't  know  anything 
about  it. 

Q.  Was  there  any  complaint  to  you  of  that  kind 
of  thing  being  done? 

A.  No  particular  complaint  at  all.  The  news- 
paper boys  often  came  around  and  said  there  was 
pool  selling  going  on  at  different  places. 

Q.  Could  not  the  police  of  the  city  of  Chicago 
as  readily  have  found  these  people  who  have  been 
fined  for  gambling  as  the  Sheriff? 

A.  Well,  I  don't  know.  I  presume  if  a  desperate 
effort  had  been  made  to  look  that  kind  of  thing  up 
ijoe  might,  possibly,  Jiave  been  successful." 

Through  these  resorts,  which  offer  inducements 
for  betting  on  distant  horse  races,  the  confidential 
clerk,  the  outside  collector  for  business  houses, 
the  employes  of  banks,  young  men  in  all  grades 
of  employment  involving  the  handling  of  the  funds 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  91 

of  their  employers,  together  with  the  men  of  mod- 
erate salaries,  working  men,  and  the  large  number 
of  sports  who  live  by  their  wits,  are  assisted  in 
a  downward  career,  until  defalcations,  destitution  in 
homes,  and  a  still  more  acute  phase  of  living  on 
one's  wits,  are  reached,  followed  by  flight,  arrest, 
conviction,  imprisonment,  the  breaking  up  of  homes, 
and  the  necessity  for  the  resort  of  the  broken  sport 
to  the  tactics  of  the  hold-up  man. 

Yet  they  are  tolerated,  until  their  shameless 
management  becomes  a  public  scandal.  Then  fol- 
lows a  pull,  a  period  of  purification  of  very  slight 
duration,  and  again  a  slow  start.  Speedily  again 
they  are  in  as  full  gallop  as  are  the  horses  whose 
names  they  post,  and  as  around  the  race  track  the 
horses  go,  so  around  the  vice  track  the  pool  rooms 
go.  The  losing  patrons  pass  under  the  wire  at 
the  end  of  their  foolish  struggle  to  win,  some  to 
the  penitentiary,  some  to  despair,  and  some  to 
suicide. 

The  keeper  and  the  landlord  who  knowingly 
permits  his  premises  to  be  used  for  the  selling  of 
pools,  are,   under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Illinois 


92  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

enacted  into  an  ordinance  by  the  Municipal  Code, 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  are  liable  to  pun- 
ishment by  imprisonment  in  the  county  jail  for  a 
period  not  longer  than  one  year,  or  by  a  fine  not 
exceeding  $2,000,  or  both. 

The  police  make  no  complaints  to  justices  for 
arrests,  nor  to  their  Chief,  according  to  his  testi- 
mony. The  keeper  pays  a  high  rent,  while  the 
landlord,  perhaps  some  sanctimonious  deacon  of  a 
church,  who  thanks  God  that  he  is  not  as  other 
men  are,  accepts  his  monthly  returns  with  unctu- 
ous satisfaction,  shouts  his  amens  louder,  con- 
fesses his  sins  more  meekly,  or  excuses  his  vio- 
lation of  the  laws  of  the  state  with  a  more  em- 
phatic shrug  of  his  shoulders  and  a  more  fervid 
rubbing  of  his  hands. 

Book  making,  "in  which  the  betting  is  with  the 
book  maker,"  and  pool  selling,  in  which  the  bet- 
ting is  among  the  purchasers  of  the  pool,  they 
paying  a  commission  to  the  seller,  are  both  de- 
nounced by  the  statute,  and  the  court  of  last  resort 
of  the  state. 

The  unholy  alliance  between  the  police,  the  keeper 


CHICAGO;  Satan's  Sanctum.  93 

of  these  law  breaking  and  despicable  haunts,  and 
the  conscienceless  landlord,  could  be  summarily 
dissolved.  The  police  could  be  made  the  enemy 
of  both.  Their  warm  friendship  for,  and  silent 
participation  in  the  profits  of,  the  partnership,  can 
be  destroyed  by  an  executive  order  which  needs 
but  to  be  issued,  with  no  possibility  of  an  early 
revocation,  to  be  implicitly  obeyed  by  the  sellers 
and  ''bookies."  If  not  obeyed,  then  drastic  meas- 
ures within  the  power  of  the  police  to  employ 
should  be  applied.  As  these  lines  are  written, 
some  evidence  is  visible  of  action  by  the  police. 
A  raid  has  been  made !  The  inspector,  under  whose 
order  it  was  conducted,  said',  "The  sooner  these 
men  begin  to  learn  that  I  mean  what  I  say,  the 
better  it  will  be  for  them.  I  want  my  officers  to 
understand,  also,  that  they  will  have  to  be  more 
vigilant."  Threatening  words,  such  as  these,  are 
common  utterances  by  police  officials,  but  hereto- 
fore as  their  echo  died  away  their  fierceness  dis- 
appeared. No  administration  could  lay  claim  to 
higher  praise  in  any  city  in  the  land  than  that 
its     police    force    is    the    guardian    of    the    people's 


94  .Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

rights,  the  stern  foe  of  crime,  and  the  relentless 
suppressor  of  vice  and  indecency  through  the  en- 
forcement of  the  laws  created  for  that  suppression. 

If  this  is  done  in  Chicago,  a  few  of  the  devil's 
aids  in  the  diffusion  of  wickedness  will  disappear 
from  sight  so  completely  that  Asmodeus  would 
vainly  tear  off  the  roofs  of  the  houses  in  a  search 
after  proofs  of  his  demoniacal  power. 

While  the  police  force  is  so  closely  leagued 
with  pool  rooms,  and  subjected  to  the  power  of 
the  money  their  keepers  are  willing  to  pay  for  per- 
mission to  carry  on,  their  demoralizing  business,  it 
is  a  matter  of  impossibility  to  destroy  them.  Vice 
works  incessantly;  the  means  for  its  destruction 
are  employed  spasmodically.  New  York  City  fur- 
nishes an  astonishing  instance  of  the  political 
power  exercised  by  a  combination  of  the  law 
breakers. 

The  Lexow  committee  demonstrated  the  almost 
total  depravity  of  an  officer,  charged  with  a  com- 
mand over  its  "Tenderloin." 

The  city  labored  and  Greater  New  York  was 
born.        It    would    seem    that    greater    crime     and 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  95 

greater  political  power  in  the  criminal  classes  were 
born  at  the  same  birth.  That  officer  became  Chief 
of  Police  of  the  expanded  metropolis.  He  had 
been  indicted  under  the  scathing  revelations  against 
him  made  by  the  Lexow  committee,  and  yet  de- 
spite the  evidence  of  his  depravity,  and  the  pro- 
tests of  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Crime, 
he  was,  through  the  power  of  politics  and  crime, 
foisted  upon  the  new  municipality  as  the  ranking 
officer  of  its  police  organization.  The  result  was 
inevitable.  New  York,  the  greater,  is  now  de- 
calred  to  out-Satan  New  York,  the  lesser.  A  new 
committee  is  probing  into  its  police  management. 
At  the  outset  of  its  proceedings  it  wrung  from 
this  officer  replies  so  self  condemning  as  to  stag- 
ger one's  faith  in  the  possibility  of  such  a  quality 
as  obedience  to  official  oath  in  a  police  officer. 

The  Chief  was  asked :  O.  Perhaps  you  can  tell 
how  it  is  and  why  it  is,  that  even  while  this  com- 
mittee is  sitting  in  session  here,  the  pool  rooms  are 
open  all  around  us,  and  I  have  in  my  pocket  money 
tliat  my  men  won  in  the  pool  rooms? 

A.  Perhaps  some  of  my  men  have  it,  too.  They 
are  looking  after  it  just  the  same  as  you  are. 


96  jChicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Q,  But  the  pool  rooms  are  running? 

The  Chief  did  not  answer,  but  complained  to 
his  questioner  that  he  had  not  been  informed  of 
the  facts  "officially." 

The  examination  then  proceeded  as  follows,  viz.: 

Q.  Do  you  mean  to  say,  as  Chief  of  Police, 
witli  the  men  and  money  at  your  command,  you 
can't  close  the  pool  rooms? 

"No,"  replied  the  Chief,  "we  do  the  best  we 
can,  as  we  did  when  you  were  a  Commissioner." 

"I  closed  the  pool  rooms,"  shouted  his  ques- 
tioner. "You  did  not,"  retorted  the  Chief;  "they 
were  alleged  to  be,  on  reports  of  commanding  offi- 
cers, then  as  now." 

"Yes,"  said  the  questioner,  "but  there  was 
some  fatality  about  that  business,  if  you  know  what 
I  mean," 

"Some  forced  fatalities,"  sneered  the  Chief. 
"Well,  sir,"  said  the  questioner,  "here  are  three 
great  evils  of  importance — gambling  houses,  pool 
rooms  and  policy  shops — and  you  cannot  recall 
from  your  own  recollection — you  who  are  in  charge 
of    the    enforcement    of    the    laws — a    single    arrest 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  97 

in  any  one  of  these  classes  of  crimes  within  a 
month.  What  do  you  do  for  your  salary  as 
Chief?" 

A.  "I  look  after  the  force  as  a  whole ;  I  look 
after  all  reports  that  come  in  touching  all  mat- 
ters of  the  kind  you  refer  to  and  all  kinds 
of  crime." 

The  questioner  called  the  Chief's  attention  to  a 
newspaper  and  some  advertisements  it  carried.  In 
spite  of  the  questioner's  declaration  that  the  paper 
was  a  Tammany  organ,  and  that  all  Tammany 
men  were  supposed  to  buy  it  and  read  it,  the  Chief 
declared  that  he  never  had  done  so.  The  ques- 
tioner made  the  Chief  a  present  of  a  copy  of 
the  paper,  and  asked  him  to  read  over  the  mas- 
sage advertisements.  The  Chief  thanked  him  and 
said,  "I  will  attend  to  these  places  because  I  do 
not  believe  in  such  disguises  for  disorderly  houses. 
Such  places  are  usually  in  tenement  houses  and 
flats.      I  will  attend  to  them  and  drive  them  out." 

"Will  you  make  the  same  pledge  about  pool 
rooms,"  demanded  the  questioner  quickly? 

"That  I  cannot  promise,"  r:plied  the  Chief. 


98  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

"Why  can't  you  promise  it?"  asked  the  ques- 
tioner. 

"Because  they  conduct  that  sort  of  business  in 
places  where  we  can't  get  at  them,  and  you  know 
it,  but  I  will  try  and  stamp  it  out." 

Chicago  and  New  York  methods  quite  agree, 
with  the  advantage  in  favor  of  New  York,  In 
the  latter  city,  the  Chief  of  Police  "will  try"  to 
stamp  pool  rooms  out.  In  Chicago,  the  Chief, 
in  his  reply  to  similar  questions,  said :  "While 
a  man  may  come  to  my  office  and  give  informa- 
tion that  a  certain  individual  is  violating  the  law 
somewhere  and  it  is  a  trivial  offense,  I  do  not  pay 
so  much  attention  to  it  as  I  do  when  a  report 
reaches  my  office  that  a  man  has  committed  a 
serious  crime,  such  as  murder,  that  a  serious  crime 
has  been  committed  on  the  outside.  I  should  nat- 
urally abandon  that  part  of  it,  and  take  up  the 
more  serious  offense,  and  I  have  been  looking  up 
serious  crimes,  such  as  burglary,  robbery  and  the 
hold-up  people,  and  I  have  made  a  desperate  effort 
to  suppress  that." 

It  was   in  this  connection   reference    was    made 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  99 

by  the  committee  to  the  fact  that  one  of  Chi- 
cago's pohcemen  had  shortly  before  been  arrested 
for  holding  up  a  citizen  and  robbing  him  in 
the  daylight  hours,  which  called  forth  the  reply 
already  quoted  in  these  pages  to  the  effect  that 
this  particular  star  had  been  tried,  that  he  was  a 
member  of  the  police  force  for  ten  years,  was 
a  good  officer,  but  got  drunk  and  became  a  "little 
indiscreet."  For  this  he  was  dismissed  from  the 
force,  but  reinstated  because  "many  people"  vouched 
for  him.  It  seems  almost  incredible  that  that  man 
is  today  a  member  of  Chicago's  police  force;  yet 
such  is  the  shameful  fact. 

Without  the  aid  of  the  telegraph,  the  daily 
newspaper  and  the  race  cards,  pool  rooms  and 
book  making  could  not  survive.  They  are  the 
means  of  giving  vitality  to  this  form  of  gam- 
bling. The  telegraph  furnishes  the  press  wnth 
"events"  all  over  the  country,  upon  which  pools 
and  books  are  made  up.  The  news  of  the  result 
of  a  particular  race  is  flashed  by  wire  at  once  from 
the  race  track  to  the  pool  rooms  all  over  the  land. 
There  is  scarcely  a  daily  newspaper  in  any  city  that 


loo  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

does  not  devote  a  page  of  its  issue  to  sporting 
events.  Many  of  them  have  their  "forms"  or 
"forecasts"  of  races,  which  are  the  guesses  of  their 
sporting  men  as  to  the  probable  results  of  each  race 
to  be  run  on  a  particular  track.  The  race  card 
is  distributed  every  evening  throughout  the  city; 
to  cigar  stores,  saloons  and  billiard  halls.  It  con- 
tains the  "results"  of  the  day,  together  with  in- 
formation as  to  the  entries  for  the  following  day's 
races.  Through  these  sources  the  sporting  commu- 
nity keeps  in  touch  with  the  world. 

A  Chicago  afternoon  newspaper  upon  the  occa- 
sion of  the  opening  of  a  race  track  in  an  adjoining 
state  presented  in  its  issue  its  "Form  of  Today's 
Races."  To  those  unacquainted  with  the  lingo  of 
the  track  its  guesses  are  delightfully  humorous. 

Predicting  the  possible  result  of  the  first  race, 
the  form  says :  "B.  L.  looks  the  best  of  the  lot 
on  paper.  If  the  trip  from  the  east  did  not  take 
the  edge  off  H.  S.  he  should  win  easily,  as  he 
showed  considerable  sprinting  ability  in  his  last  out. 
L.  P.  has  a  burst  of  speed  which  may  put  her  in- 
side  of   the   money   and   with  a   good    boy    up    is 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  ioi 

worth  a  show  bet.  The  others  are  a  poor  lot  and 
of  uncertain  quahty,  so  that  the  finish  will  proba- 
bly be  B.  L.,  etc."  Of  the  second  it  remarks:  "Of 
these  youngsters  which  have  started  C.  has  been 
the  most  consistent  and  is  undoubtedly  the  best, 
but  T.  is  rounding  too  rapidly  and  may  run  ahead 
of  the  mark.  F.  A.  is  a  sprinter,  but  if  pinched 
does  not  like  the  gaff.  M.  E.  and  M.  are  green 
ones,  and  this  is  the  first  time  they  have  faced 
the  barrier,  so  there  is  no  line  on  them.  C.  T. 
and  F.  A.  should  be  the  order  of  the  finish."  It 
says  of  the  third  racers  "M.  is  a  soft  spot,  and,  if 
fit,  she  should  win  as  she  pleases.  It  looks  as 
if  the  real  race  should  be  for  the  place  and  the 
show  money,  and  will  likely  be  between  M.  and  A. 
H.  and  T.  are  also  partial  to  the  going,  but  as 
the  latter  has  not  started  recently,  T.  should  be  the 
better  if  any  of  the  others  named  are  scratched. 
The  result  will  likely  be  M.  A.,  etc."  Of  another, 
a  colt  race,  its  forecast  is,  "H  is  such  a  good  colt 
that  he  looks  like  a  2-to-5  shot  in  this  bunch,  and 
that  will  be  about  what  the  books  will  lay  against 
him.      Of   course,    he   has    dicky   legs,   but   the   soft 


I02  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

undergoing  will  undoubtedly  suit  his  underpinning. 
The  finish  should  be  H.  K.,  etc."  The  final  race 
is  thus  placed  in  the  form :  "At  the  best  this  is 
a  bad  lot,  and  hardly  worthy  of  doping,  as  so 
much  depends  on  the  jockeys  and  start  that  any 
one  of  the  probable  starters  has  a  chance  to  get 
the  big  end  of  the  purse." 

To  this  necessity  has  journalism  come  at  last! 
While  it  urges  the  suppression,  in  thundering 
tones,  of  all  manner  of  gambling,  it  is  driven, 
by  the  necessity  of  competition,  to  aid  the  most 
injurious  of  gambling's  many  attractive  methods. 
Another  Chicago  newspaper,  the  columns  of  which 
every  morning  contain  the  world's  news  of  sport- 
ing   events,    said    a    short    time     ago,    editorially : 

'Chief   K 's  assurance  that  he  will   do  his  best 

to  suppress  gambling  will  be  accepted  in  good  faith. 
He  has  made  a  start  in  that  direction,  and  the  far- 
ther he  goes  the  more  plainly  he  will  see  that  for 
the  police  to  suppress  gambling  is  a  mere  matter 
of  lifting  their  hands.  Gambling  of  the  sort  that 
the  police  department  is  expected  to  suppress  does 
not  flourish   save  by   the  connivance  of  police  offi- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  103 

cers.  It  is  quite  true  that  to  extirpate  the  vice 
of  gaming  is  beyond  the  power  of  the  police.  No- 
body has  expected  them  to  do  that.  While  the 
board  of  trade  and  the  stock  exchanges  remain  open 
one  form  of  the  vice  will  be  practiced  publicly 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  police.  And  so  long  as 
cards  and  dice  boxes  are  to  be  procured,  degen- 
erate human  nature  will  practice  the  vice  in  secret. 
But  the  police  can  stamp  out  the  open  and  flagrant 
practice  of  gambling  in  forms  inhibited  by  the 
law  as  easily  as  they  can  wink  at  it.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  saying  "Yes"  or  "No."  A  poolroom  or  a 
policy  shop  may  open  now  and  then,  but  it  will 
quickly  shut  again  if  the  police  are  in  earnest." 

The  assistance  derived  from  the  telegraph  and 
newspaper  by  the  gambling  fraternity  is  com- 
mented upon  by  a  modern  writer,  his  subject 
being  "The  Ethics  of  Gambling."  He  remarks, 
"But  it  is  time  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  real 
supports  of  the  gambling  habit  in  its  present  enor- 
mous extent  are  the  telegraph  and  the  newspaper. 
Half  the  race  courses  in  the  country  would  be 
abandoned  almost  immediately  if    newspapers    were 


I04  Chicago,  Satan's  -Sanctum. 

forbidden  to  report  on  betting,  and  if  telegraph  of- 
fices declined  to  transmit  agreements  to  bet,  or  in- 
formation which  is  intended  to  guide  would-be  bet- 
tors. How  this  is  to  be  done  it  is  not  for  me  to 
say.  My  present  object  and  duty  are  exhausted 
in  pointing  out  the  fact  that  the  national  life  is 
being  deeply  injured,  the  State  seriously  weakened 
by  the  wide  spread  of  the  gambling  habit,  and  fur- 
ther, that  this  habit  in  its  present  extent  and  in- 
tensity, is  nourished  most  by  the  daily  press  and 
the  telegraph.  It  must  certainly  be  in  the  power 
of  the  State  to  deal  with  this,  the  most  potent 
instrument  by  which  the  gambling  fiend  fights  his 
way  into  home  after  home  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  country." 

"Hold  up"  men  find  Chicago  their  least  dan- 
gerous and,  perhaps,  their  most  profitable  field  of 
operations.  In  all  the  various  forms  of  this  rob- 
bery upon  the  street  in  day  or  at  night  time,  or  in 
raiding  saloons  and  stores,  it  is  merciless  in  its 
methods.  Robbery  accomplished,  brutality  follows. 
The  criminals  who  resort  to  it  at  night,  not  satis- 
fied with  acquiring  their  victim's  property,   usually 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  105 

knock  him  unconscious  with  the  butt  end  of  a  re- 
volver, with  a  billy  or  sand  bag,  or  blind  him  with 
cayenne  pepper,  and  in  that  hapless  condition 
leave  him  to  be  found,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
state  of  the  weather.  This  form  of  criminality 
is  a  winter's  occupation.  It  is  occasionally,  but 
rarely,  followed  in  the  summer  months. 

Women  are  held  up  in  the  streets  at  midday, 
in  the  evening  when  returning  home  from  labor, 
on  the  street  cars,  and  at  the  doors  of  their  own 
homes,  and  within  them.  No  class  is  exempt 
from  the  attacks  of  these  marauders.  The  poor 
suffer  with  the  rich.  They  are  of  such  frequent 
occurrence  that  it  is  believed  not  one-fourth  of 
their  number  is  reported  to  the  police.  The  ineffi- 
ciency of  the  force  to  prevent  them  is  proverbial,  and 
that  inefficiency  finds  much  of  its  origin  in  the  utter 
disregard  of  the  rules  of  the  department  requiring 
patrolmen  to  travel  their  respective  beats.  The  dis- 
cipline of  the  force  in  this  respect  is  nothing;  it  is 
worn  away  by  abrasion. 

The  colder  the  night  and  the  warmer  the  near- 
est saloon  or  kitchen   range,  there  will  the  patrol- 


io6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

man  be  found.  In  the  former  case  he  is  merely 
dreaming  of  his  duty;  and  in  the  latter,  he  is  en- 
gaged in  a  terrific  struggle  between  love  and  duty. 
Some  back  door  of  a  house  of  ill  fame  is  open  to 
him  for  shelter,  for  wine,  and  oftentimes  for  food. 
The  good-hearted  landladies  of  these  abodes  know 
full  well  that  one  way  to  reach  the  patrolmen  sta- 
tioned in  their  neighborhood  is  through  their  stom- 
achs, not  because  they  are  officers,  but  because 
they  are  men.  In  localities  away  from  the  bag- 
nios, some  servant  girl,  friendly  to  the  "copper," 
protects  him  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather. 
To  her  he  gives  his  time  and  his  devotions  at  the 
city's  expense.  If  on  some,  or  on  any  winter's 
night,  an  observation  flight  could  be  taken  through 
the  air,  and  over  the  city,  by  the  Chief,  that  official 
would  believe  his  occupation  was  gone ;  for,  ex- 
cept here  and  there  as  some  of  his  subordinates 
were  wending  their  way  at  the  appointed  hour  to 
a  patrol  box  to  report,  he  would  fancy  he  was  a 
general  deserted  by  his  army.  Closer  inspection 
would,  however,  reveal  to  him  that  never  an  army 
had   such  comfortable  winter  quarters  as  has    his. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  107 

While  the  patrolman  thus  enjoys  his  siesta,  or  in- 
dulges in  his  love  making,  the  hold  up  man  lies 
in  wait  on  the  unguarded  beat,  to  slug  and  rob 
the  first  belated  wayfarer  whom  he  may  confront. 

The  number  of  hold  ups  in  Chicago  in  the 
year  1898,  it  is  believed,  exceeded  in  number  those 
of  any  two  large  cities  in  the  United  States  com- 
bined. The  press,  in  fact,  claims  that  their  num- 
ber was  greater  than  in  all  of  the  cities  of  the 
United  States.  They  were  of  almost  daily  occur- 
rence. They  are  just  as  numerous,  and  just  as 
ingenious  and  murderous  in  design,  since  the 
continued  administration  was  inaugurated,  as  before. 

In  the  morning  edition  of  the  daily  press  of 
April  nth,  1899,  the  re-elected  Mayor's  felicita- 
tions to  the  council  in  his  annual  message  de- 
livered on  the  previous  evening  were  published  in 
these  words : 

"The  people  of  Chicago  have  reason  to  congrat- 
ulate themselves  on  the  successful  manner  in  which 
the  police  department  has  coped  with  crime.  It 
is  acknowledged  on  all  hands  that  Chicago  is  a 
singularly    good    place    for    thugs    and    thieves    to 


io8  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

avoid,  and  this  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
size  of  the  pohce  force  is  utterly  inadequate." 

The  evening  papers  of  the  same  date  report 
the  following  as  examples  of  how  the  thieves  and 
thugs  avoid  Chicago ; 

"L.  was  arrested  early  yesterday  morning  for 
alleged  participation  in  a  daring  hold  up,  which 
occurred  near  the  corner  of  Van  Buren  and  State 
streets  about  an  hour  before.  A  cab  containing 
Mv.  and  Mrs.  L.  B.,  who  live  on  Pine  street,  and 
Mrs.  C.  D.,  of  North  Clark  street,  approached  the 
curb.  As  the  three  occupants  alighted  four  or 
five  men  rushed  at  them.  One  drew  a  revolver 
and  shouted :  "Hands  up."  The  other  made  a 
dash  at  Mrs.  D.,  who  displayed  some  valuable  jew- 
elry, and  snatched  a  watch  worth  $225  and  a  dia- 
mond ring  valued  at  $125.  The  highwaymen  then 
disappeared  around  the  corner." 

"Attacked  by  Three  Negroes. — Stanton  Avenue 
police  are  looking  for  three  negroes  who  held  up 
Albert  T.,  of  37th  street,  at  33rd  and  Dearborn 
sftreets  last  night  and  relieved  him  of  $4.00  and 
a   watch.      T.   was   standing  under   the   shadow   of 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  109 

a  building  at  tlie  corner  when  three  negroes  ap- 
proached him.  One  of  them  drew  a  revolver  and 
threatened  T.,  while  the  other  two  searched  him. 
Many  people  were  passing  at  the  time,  but  the  party 
escaped  all  notice  in  the  deep  shadows." 

"As  Thomas  L.  and  Joseph  S.  left  Aid.  K.'s  sa- 
loon early  today,  S.  says  he  was  robbed  of  $2.45 — 
all  the  money  he  had." 

"Robbed  in  a  Saloon. — August  J.,  bound  for 
Minneapolis  from  Finland,  came  to  Chicago  last 
evening.  He  met  a  woman,  and  the  two  went 
to  Samuel  M.'s  saloon  on  State  street,  where  J. 
claims  the  woman  held  him  up  at  the  point  of  a 
revolver  and  took  all  his  money — $25.  J.  reported 
the  matter  to  the  Harrison  street  police,  and  Offi- 
cers C.  and  S.  arrested  Albert  B.,  the  bartender. 
He  was  arraigned  before  Justice  F.  today  on  a 
charge  of  being  accessory  to  robbery.  The  woman 
has  not  been  arrested." 

Following  this,  t\vo  rnen  boarded  an  outgoing 
railroad  train  at  night,  and  at  one  of  its  stopping 
stations  captured  a  passenger  w^ho  was  standing 
on    the    rear    platform    of    a    coach,    dragged     him 


no  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

away,  robbed  him  of  a  small  sum  of  money,  a  lady's 
gold  watch,  took  a  plain  gold  ring  from  his  finger, 
then  bound  and  gagged  him  and  threw  him  into  an 
empty  freight  car  near  by. 

Within  three  weeks  after  the  publication  of 
this  effusive  compliment  to  the  police,  a  citizen  sent 
the  following  communication  to  an  evening  paper, 
which,  together  with  the  comments  of  that  paper 
upon  it,  is  here  inserted,  as  the  best  criticism  of 
the  Mayor's  optimistic  view  of  the  efficiency  of  his 
police  force : 

'■'April  26,  1899. — Editor  the  J.:  Not  fewer 
than  15  flats  and  residences  in  the  district  bounded 
by  West  Adams  street,  Kedzie  avenue,  Homan 
avenue  and  Washington  boulevard  have  been  plun- 
dered recently.      The  thieves  reside  at  ,  a  fact 

well  known  to  the  police,  but  all  the  efforts  of  the 
suffering  tax  payers  are  unavailing  in  having  them 
arrested. 

"The  police  authorities  will  not  act.  The  ras- 
cals  have   been   at   their   present    abode    ( ,    first 

flat)  since  early  last  autumn.  Their  landlord  is 
(well,  I  won't  mention  his  name)  well  known. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  hi 

Our  community  has  become  so  terrorized  that 
no  one  dares  remain  out  after  dark.  Can't  you  as- 
sist us  in  our  troubles?     The  poHce  don't  act. 

"Resident  of  the  District." 
The    comments    of    the    paper    read    as    follows, 
viz. : 

"The  author  of  the  above  is  a  well-to-do  West 
side  manufacturer.  He  says  in  a  note  which  came 
with  this  communication :  'Do  not  under  any  cir- 
cumstances couple  my  name  with  it.  We  are  all 
afraid  of  our  lives,  believing  that  the  thieves  are 
so  desperate  that  they  would  murder  any  one  dis- 
closing their  method  and  abode.' 

This  is  the  district  in  which  George  B.  Fern  and 
Cora  Henderson  met  their  deaths  under  such  myste- 
rious circumstances. 

Here  is  a  partial  list  of  the  happenings  of  recent 
date  in  this  one  neighborhood,  the  first  four  named 
cases  being  within  one  business  block : 

GEORGE  B.  FERN,  dry  goods  merchant,  1393 
West  Madison  street ;  found  in  his  store  with  bul- 
let hole  in  his  head,  mask  and  revolver  with  one 
chamber     empty    at    his  side;    police    say    he    com- 


112  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

mitted  suicide;  coroner's  jury  leturned  a  murder 
verdict;  the  grand  jury  also  declares  it  was  a  case 
of  murder. 

CORA  HENDERSON,  blind  woman,  1385  West 
Madison  street;  found  dead  in  her  house,  hole  in 
her  skull;  murder  theory  worked  upon  by  police; 
later  theory  advanced  that  she  might  have  met  her 
death  by  a  fall. 

F.  W.,  tailor.  West  Madison  street;  robbers 
drove  up  to  his  store  in  broad  daylight  while  he 
was  eating  in  a  restaurant  next  door  and  intimi- 
dated clerk  with  revolver,  loaded  in  tailor's  cloth, 
drove  away. 

W.  H.  D.,  West  Madison  street,  grocer;  hole 
drilled  in  his  safe;  burglars  scared  away  when  D. 
came  to  open  store. 

MRS.  FRANK  W.,  Washington  boulevard,  house 
entered;  $200  stolen. 

MRS.  MARGARET  D.,  Washington  boulevard; 
house  entered ;  $200  worth  of  property  taken. 

MRS.  WARREN  F.  H.,  Warren  avenue;  house 
entered ;  $500  worth  of  property  taken. 

MRS.    CHARLES    C,    Washington    boulevard; 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum,  113 

hearing  a  noise  at  her  front  door,  went  onto  the 
porch ;  a  burglar  who  had  been  trying  to  force  an 
entrance  into  the  second  story  dropped  at  her  side, 
revolver  in  hand ;  he  escaped,  frightening  off  pur- 
suers with  his  revolver. 

DR.  F.  F.  S.,  West  Monroe  street  and  Homan 
avenue;  two  men  attempted  to  hold  him  up  in  his 
office;  frightened  away  by  the  arrival  of  a 
patient. 

PROF.  CHARLES  E.  W.,  Chicago  Piano  col- 
lege ;  chased  by  mounted  foot  pad. 

MRS.  ELIZABETH  H.  T.,  M.  D.,  Warren 
avenue;  swindled  out  of  $60  by  men  who  had  a 
'sure  thing'  on  the  races. 

JOHN  v.,  West  Monroe  street;  swindled  by 
same  game. 

WILLIAM  H.  P.,  bookkeeper  for  C.  S.  &  Co., 
\Vest  Monroe  street ;  house  robbed. 

HERMAN  W.,  West  Monroe  street;  house 
robbed  of  diamonds,  jewelry  and  silverware;  Mrs. 
W.  coming  home,  encounters  robbers  as  they  were 
leaving;  they  politely  raised  their  hats  and 
walked  on. 


114  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

H.   S.   B.,  real  estate,  West  Adams  street;  can- 
didate for  president  of  M.  club ;  house  robbed. 

ARTHUR  W.  C,  Illinois  Credit  Company,  West 
Adams  street;  house  robbed. 

JOHN  G.,  grocer;  attempt  made  to  swindle  him 
out  of  $100  by  men  with  'tip'  on  races. 

The  above  list  was  obtained  by  a  brief  canvass 
of  the  neighborhood. 

The  house  given  as  the  abode  of  the  "thieves"  is 
situated  right  in  this  neighborhood,  which  is  one 
of  the  best  residence  districts.  It  is  a  gray  stone 
structure  and  is  said  to  be  owned  by  a  well  known 
West  side  politician.  In  this  place  lives  at  least 
one  of  the  men  who  have  swindled  numerous  West 
side  residents  of  this  district  by  means  of  the 
'tips'  on  the  races.  These  men,  it  is  said,  have 
operated  successfully  for  a  year,  few  of  their  vic- 
tims making  complaint  on  account  of  the  unenvi- 
able publicity  the  affair  would  thus  attain.  This 
gang,  too,  has  headquarters  in  a  West  Madison 
street  block  within  a  few  doors  of  the  Fern  store. 

This  neighborhood  is  included  in  the  Warren 
avenue    police    district.      None    of    the    officers    at 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  115 

this  station,  or  any  of  the  Central  station  detect- 
ives famiHar  with  the  case,  beHeves  that  the 
'jockeys'  have  anything  to  do  with  the  'holdups' 
and  robberies  of  flats,  and  laugh  at  the  idea  ad- 
vanced by  the  author  of  the  letter  to  The  J — ." 

The  names  and  addresses  of  these  victims  are 
printed  in  full  in  the  newspaper  referred  to,  but  for 
obvious  reasons  they  are  not  used  in  reproducing  the 
article. 

Immediately  following  the  publication  of  this 
startling  list  of  crimes,  a  grand  jury  submitted  to  the 
court  the  following  report.  The  reader  can  harmo- 
nize, as  best  he  may,  this  official  statement,  with  that 
of  a  lighthearted  and  self  satisfied  Mayor  who  controls, 
or  does  not  control,  as  one's  thought  may  elect,  the 
Chicago  police  force. 

"In  closing  our  work  the  members  of  the  jury  de- 
sire to  report  to  your  honor  some  slight  comment  on 
the  various  matters  which  have  been  brought  to  our 
attention  during  our  session,  and  to  submit  for  recom- 
mendation to  the  proper  authorities  suggestions  that 
may  check  the  amount  of  crime  which  has  been  brought 
to  our  notice. 


ii6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

"Our  city  seems  to  be  the  asylum  of  habitual  crim- 
inals of  all  classes,  who  have  terrorized  the  people  to  an 
alarming  degree.  We  would  particularly  call  attention 
to  several  instances  within  our  knowledge  where  per- 
sons have  been  found  dead,  investigation  made  by  the 
proper  authorities,  verdicts  rendered  according  to  the 
evidence  with  recommendations  by  the  coroner's  jury 
that  the  guilty  be  brought  to  justice.  These  deeds 
wherein  the  perpetrators  in  several  instances  have 
not  been  detected  are  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  this 
city  is  made  an  asylum  for  habitual  criminals,  and  we 
strongly  recommend  that  every  measure  be  taken  to 
close  the  gates  of  the  city  to  such  people. 

"Were  the  statute  of  the  state  regarding  the  arrest 
of  vagabonds  more  strictly  enforced  by  the  proper 
authorities  the  number  of  habitual  criminals  at  large 
could  be  largely  reduced  and  Chicago  made  a  less  at- 
tractive place  of  residence  for  this  class.  The  law  it- 
self is  broad  and  ample  in  its  provisions.  Places  under 
the  guise  of  saloons,  duly  licensed,  are  merely  rendez- 
vous for  thieves,  murderers  and  prostitutes,  and  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  such  vile  places  are  well 
known  to  the  authorities  they  are  permitted  to  continue 


Chicago,,  Satan's  Sanctum.  117 

without  molestation.  The  defilement  of  our  youths  of 
both  sexes  should  receive  the  severest  penalty  of  the 
law.  It  is  our  duty  to  protect  and  guard  the  manhood 
and  womanhood  of  the  young. 

"The  continued  violation  of  the  ordinance  fixing 
the  closing  hours  of  saloons  is  a  great  factor  in  the 
number  of  crimes  committed  in  the  city,  and  we  ear- 
nestly recommend  a  strict  enforcement  of  the  ordi- 
nance." 

Apparently,  a  few  of  these  criminal  gentry  regard 
Chicago  as  a  safe  field  for  their  labors ! 

Boys  in  their  teens,  men  and  women,  both  black 
and  white,  the  latter  of  the  strong  armed  class,  com- 
prise this  coterie  of  criminals.  The  strong  armed 
women,  generally  negresses,  have  the  developed  mus- 
cles of  the  pugilist  and  the  daring  of  the  pirate.  They 
entice  the  stranger  into  dark  passage  ways,  that  inno- 
cent stranger,  so  unfamiliar,  but  so  willing  to  be  made 
familiar  with  the  wickedness  of  a  great  city,  who  seeks 
out  its  most  disreputable  quarters  and  scours  its  dark- 
est byways,  to  report  to  his  mates,  on  his  return  to 
his  country  home,  the  salacious  things  that  he  has 
heard  of,  and  a  few  of  which  he  witnessed.    In  these 


ii8  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

dark  and  dangerous  ways  the  strong  armed  women 
garrote  and  rob  their  victims,  or  they  entice  the  inno- 
cent, but  lustful,  stranger  to  their  rooms,  and  there, 
through  the  panel  game,  or  by  sheer  strength  or  drug- 
ged potations,  appropriate  the  innocent  stranger's  val- 
uables. Mortified  and  humiliated,  the  stranger  usually 
has  nothing  to  say  to  the  police  of  the  affair.  Then 
the  emboldened  strong  armed  women  go  upon  the 
street  in  couples,  and  rob  in  the  most  approved  meth- 
ods of  the  highwayman.  Alone,  one  of  these  notorious 
characters  is  said  to  have  pilfered  to  the  extent  of 
$60,000.  She  was,  and  is,  a  terror  to  the  police  force. 
Released  from  the  penitentiary  not  long  ago,  she  is 
now  undergoing  trial  for  a  fresh  offense.  Approach- 
ing a  commercial  traveler  from  behind,  she  is  charged 
with  having  nearly  strangled  him,  and  then  robbed 
him  of  his  money  and  jewelry. 

"Only  one  man  ever  got  the  best  of  E.  F.,"  said 
detective  Sergeant  C.  R.  W.,  of  Harrison  street  sta- 
tion, who  had  arrested  E.  F.  frequently. 

"Once  she  held  up  a  cowboy  and  took  $150  from 
him.  He  came  up  to  the  station  hotfoot  to  report  the 
robbery.     We  were  busy  and  a  little  slow  in  sending 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  119 

out  after  E.,  whereupon  the  cowboy  allowed  he'd  start 
out  after  her  on  his  own  hook.  He  met  her  down  by 
the  Polk  street  depot,  and  the  moment  he  spotted  her 
he  walked  right  up  close  to  her  and  covered  her  with 
two  six-shooters. 

"You've  got  $150  of  my  money,  now  shell  out  nig- 
ger," he  said. 

"Go  and  get  a  warrant  and  have  me  arrested  then," 
replied  the  big  colored  woman,  who  wanted  time  to 
plant  the  coin. 

"These  are  good  enough  warrants  for  me,"  re- 
turned the  cowboy  significantly,  as  he  poked  the  re- 
volvers a  trifle  closer  to  her  face.  "Now,  I'm  going  to 
count  twenty,  and  if  I  don't  see  my  money  coming 
back  before  I  reach  twenty,  I'll  go  with  both  guns." 

"When  he  reached  eighteen,  E.  weakened.  She 
drew  out  a  wad  and  held  it  out  toward  him.  But  the 
cowboy  was  wise  and  would  not  touch  the  roll  till  she 
had  walked  to  the  nearest  lamplight  under  the  escort 
of  his  two  guns  and  counted  out  the  $150.  Then  he 
let  her  go  and  came  back  to  the  station  and  treated." 

Conductors  of  street  cars  are  often  the  victims  of 
the  hold  up  men.    Here  in  Chicago  they  invented  the 


I20  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

plan  of  placing  the  saloonkeeper  in  the  ice  chest,  while 
the  looting  of  the  place  went  on.  In  another  instance 
a  baker  was  imprisoned  in  a  hot  oven.  Women  in 
their  homes  are  thrust  into  closets,  gagged  and  bound, 
while  their  houses  are  ransacked  and  their  property 
stolen. 

The  want  of  an  energetic  police  is  the  cause  of  the 
prevalence  of  such  abominable  offenses  as  hair  clip- 
ping, or  the  severing  from  the  heads  of  young  girls 
upon  the  public  streets  their  braids  of  hair.  One  of 
these  perverts  was  arrested  and  excused  himself  upon 
the  ground  that  it  was  a  mania  with  him,  and  that  the 
temptation  to  cut  off  the  braids  of  hair  from  every 
young  girl  he  met,  was  almost  irresistible.  If  de- 
tectives, instead  of  lounging  around  their  daily  haunts 
for  drinking  purposes,  loafing  in  cigar  stores,  and 
playing  the  pool  rooms,  were  mingling  with  the  crowds 
upon  the  streets,  offenses  of  this  character  would  be 
nearly  impossible,  although  this  particular  weakness 
seems  to  lead  its  impulsive  perpetrators  to  less  crowd- 
ed thoroughfares,  and  selects  the  hours  of  going  to  and 
returning  from  school,  as  the  most  favorable  parts  of 
the  day  for  its  gratification.     It  may  be  prompted  by 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  121 

a  morbid  desire,  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  serious  of- 
fense, which,  as  yet,  the  criminal  law  has  not  defined, 
and  has  therefore  not  provided  a  proper  penalty  for  its 
punishment.  No  evidence,  so  far  as  it  is  known,  has 
yet  been  adduced  to  show  that  the  braids  of  hair  are 
ever  sold  to  dealers  in  that  article,  such  as  wig  manu- 
facturers, etc.  If  such  evidence  should  be  forthcoming, 
the  ingenuity  of  the  average  criminal  for  the  discovery 
of  new  methods  of  despoliation  will  receive  additional 
confirmation. 

One  peculiar  method  of  protection  to  the  criminal 
classes  is  in  vogue.  A  new  thief  arrives  in  the  city ; 
his  arrival  is  noticed  by  a  detective  and  the  fact  re- 
ported to  headquarters.  The  thief  is  invited  to  visit 
the  Chief.  Upon  his  appearance,  permission  is  given 
him  to  remain,  provided  he  "does  not  work  his  game" 
within  the  city.  He  can  plunder  all  the  neighboring 
towns  he  may  select,  but  the  price  of  his  remaining  in 
security  in  Chicago  is,  that  he  shall  be  good  and  gentle- 
manly to  its  people.  The  "Safe  Blowers'  Union"  has 
its  home  in  Chicago,  from  which  it  radiates,  as  the 
spokes  of  a  wheel,  to  the  circumference  of  its  limit  of 
operations.    It  is  a  trust ;  a  protective  association.    It 


122  ,Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

pays  for  the  privilegfe.  It  attacks  the  country  bank, 
blows  it,  in  the  silence  of  the  night,  to  piefces  with 
dynamite  if  necessary,  and  murders  if  interfered  with. 
It  returns  with  its  loot  to  the  city,  makes  its  dividends 
among  its  membership,  police  included,  and  awaits  the 
pressing  necessity  for  a  renewal  of  its  suburban  raids. 
It  is  under  the  king's  mighty  shield,  the  king  of  the 
criminals,  over  whom  he  reigns  with  leniency,  and 
whose  gifts  he  accepts  with  condescension. 

The  fakes  of  a  great  city  are  beyond  enumeration. 
There  are  fake  information  bureaus,  fake  advisory 
brokers,  fake  safe  systems  of  speculation,  fake  music 
teachers,  fake  medical  colleges,  fake  law  schools,  fake 
lawyers,  fake  "Old  Charters  for  Sale,"  fake  corpora- 
tions, fake  relief  and  aid  societies,  fake  preachers  and 
fake  detective  agencies.  The  latter,  and  the  street 
fakers,  are  friendly  with  the  police.  So  are  the  fruit 
vendors,  and  the  all  night  lunch  counters  on  wheels. 
The  latter  stand  where  the  officers  say  they  shall  stand, 
and  the  location  once  found,  the  officers  at  once  be- 
come landlords. 

As  to  private  detective  agencies,  without  reference 
to  agencies  of  an  established  local  and  national  reputa- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  123 

tion,  they  are  principally  constituted  of  thieves,  pick- 
pockets, blackmailers,  and  porch  climbers. 

In  the  trial  of  a  case  before  the  Criminal  Court  of 
Cook  County,  a  few  months  ago,  a  witness  acquainted 
with  their  inside  history,  swore  that  there  were  men 
connected  with  these  fake  organizations  who  would 
commit  murder  for  $50.  They  enter  into  conspiracies 
to  ruin  the  private  character  of  men  and  women  in 
divorce  cases,  and  for  blackmailing  purposes.  Three 
of  these  hounds  were  lately  convicted  of  conspiracy  in 
less  than  one  hour,  by  a  jury  in  the  same  court.  These 
three  worthies  comprised  the  entire  agency.  Their 
punishment  was  fixed  at  imprisonment  in  the  peniten- 
tiary. They  were  employed  in  getting  revenge  on  a 
man,  who  was  supposed,  by  their  employer,  to  have 
been  the  cause  of  his  discharge  from  his  commercial 
position.  In  getting  this  revenge  they  fell  upon  their 
shadow,  pummelled  him  with  great  severity,  and  badly 
injured  him.  So  grievous  was  the  offense,  that  the 
State's  Attorney  demand  no  less  a  punishment  than 
the  jury  awarded. 

They  manufacture  testimony  in  divorce  proceed- 
ings, at  the  suggestion  and  upon  the  request  of  the 


124  .Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

parties  willing  and  desirous  of  cutting  the  matrimonial 
tie ;  or,  upon  the  instigation  of  one  of  the  parties,  they 
will  endeavor  to  entrap  and  compromise  the  other. 
They  revel  in  the  destruction  of  the  character  of  a 
good  woman,  as  the  vulture  revels  in  the  foulness  of 
a  carrion.  The  man  of  wealth  must  be  on  his  guard 
against  their  attacks,  for  they  would  as  lief  magnify 
his  peccadillos  into  felonious  crimes  and  attempt  his 
plunder  by  blackmail,  as  they  would  accept  the  earn- 
ings of  the  Mistresses  Overdone,  the  exhausted  bawds, 
whose  pimps  they  are. 

Theirs  is  only  another  but  a  more  vicious  form  of 
depravity  than  that  practiced  by  the  panel  house 
keepers,  who  send  their  single  workers  upon  the  streets 
to  entice  men  to  their  abodes,  where  they  are  met  by 
the  expert  workers  of  the  game.  While  thus  entrapped, 
and  indulging  in  the  sensuality  which  aids  so  readily 
in  his  allurement,  the  adroit  "creeper"  enters  the  room 
through  a  movable  panel,  or  by  some  other  prear- 
ranged method  of  ingress,  and  takes  the  watch,  the 
coin,  or  "any  other  old  thing"  of  value,  found  about 
the  removed  and  scattered  clothing  of  the  greenhorn. 
The  police  are  as  well  acquainted  with  these  "single 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  125 

workers"  as  they  are  with  the  street  walkers.  They 
know  their  haunts,  and  their  fields  of  labor.  The 
hotels,  and  places  where  crowds  are  gathered  in  the 
early  evening,  attract  the  "single  workers"  as  the  most 
promising  ground  for  a  successful  capture. 

"Badger  games"  are  not  infrequently  played  in 
Chicago.  Such  as  are  successful  are  generally  kept 
from  the  police  records,  through  the  preference  of  the 
blackmailed  subjects  to  say  nothing  about  them,  in 
dread  of  their  personal  exposure.  A  man,  generally 
one  of  means  and  standing,  is  marked  for  conquest. 
The  first  class  hotel  is  the  scene  of  operations  of 
the  female  in  the  case.  Fashionably  dressed,  hand- 
some, with  jewels  for  adornment,  she  strikes  up  a 
flirtation  with  the  selected  person.  Fool  like,  as  most 
men  are  in  the  case  of  handsome  and  well  gowned 
women,  he  responds  to  the  invitation,  an  acquaintance 
is  formed  and  an  assignation  made.  The  place  is  of 
the  woman's  selection  and  known  of  course  to  her 
paramour,  styled  her  husband.  The  room  is  entered, 
compromising  situations  reached,  when,  suddenly,  the 
indignant  husband  appears,  the  woman  screams  in 
terror,  and  a  storm  rages.    It  is  calmed  by  the  payment 


126  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

of  the  price  demanded  for  concealment,  and  the  "suck- 
er" escapes  with  a  load  removed  from  both  his  pocket- 
book  and  his  mind. 

A  noted  instance  of  this  kind  happened  to  a 
wealthy  and  prominent  merchant,  whose  indiscretions 
in  the  acceptance  of  inducements  for  sexual  enjoyment 
held  out  to  him  by  a  stylish  and  beautiful  woman,  and 
his  blindness  in  not  observing  his  surroundings,  en- 
abled the  fake  husband  to  photograph  him  in  flagrante 
delicto.  Under  threats  to  distribute  the  pictures  it  is 
reported  he  paid  $10,000  for  them  and  the  negative. 
This  is  a  fact  easily  susceptible  of  proof.  One  at  least 
of  these  proofs  did  not  accompany  the  package  he  re- 
ceived, which  was  supposed  to  contain  all  of  the  pic- 
tures. 

Photographing  from  the  nude  is  not  the  fad 
of  the  harlot  alone.  Women  infatuated  with  their 
shapes  begin  with  the  exposure  of  a  beautiful  foot,  arm 
or  well  rounded  bust,  then  a  leg,  etc.,  etc.,  until  they 
stand  before  the  camera  almost  in  puris  naturalibns. 
These  pictures  are  taken  for  pure  self  admiration,  the 
love  of  self  study  and  comparison  with  the  forms  of 
celebrated  actresses,  or  the  paintings  of  the  masters, 


Chicago,  Satan*s  Sanctum.  127 

famous  in  art  for  their  conceptions  of  the  perfect  wo- 
man. They  differ  from  those  obscene  pictures  de- 
signed for  sale,  for  which  purpose  the  depraved  couple 
are  photographed  in  situations,  attitudes  and  condi- 
tions, natural  and  unnatural,  which  appeal  to  the 
grossest  instincts  in  man,  and  shock,  also,  the  moral 
sense  of  every  one  not  in  himself  a  sexual  pervert. 

The  latter  are  eagerly  sought  after,  are  quite  sal- 
able, and  are  carried  about  the  persons  of  fast  young 
men  about  town,  with  intent,  upon  opportunity,  to  in- 
fluence the  passions  of  women.  They  are  the  solace 
of  the- aged  sport,  who,  having  lost  all  recollection  of 
the  ordinary  affairs  of  his  youth,  still  fondly  retains 
the  memory  of  the  amours  of  his  younger  days,  and  of 
the  orgies  of  his  middle  age.  Then  recalling  with 
sadness  the  first  appearance  of  the  lamentable  indica- 
tions of  his  decline,  he  contentedly  yields  the  passing 
of  his  power — "sans  teeth,  sans  eyes,  sans  taste,  sans 
everything." 

These  are  the  men,  who,  if  they  had  lived  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Roman  Empire  at  or  about  the  date 
of  the  Floralian  games,  would  have  been  the  principal 
patrons,  or,  if  at  the  time  of  the  prevalence  of  the  Bac- 


128  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

chanalian  mysteries,  the  prominent  members,  of  soci- 
eties organized  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  unnatural 
desires ;  or  if  they  had  been  Romans  in  the  dedining 
days  of  that  empire  would  have  figured  as  the  most 
frantic  and  most  lustful  of  the  worshippers  of  Priapus. 

The  methods  of  the  vendors  of  obscene  literature 
are  innumerable,  and  all  are  formed  along  the  lines  of 
extreme  caution  and  cunning.  They  are  keen  judges 
of  human  nature,  quick  to  detect  the  inquisitive 
stranger,  or  the  sporting  gent  of  the  town,  and  adroit 
in  introducing  their  filthy  stock.  The  purchaser  is 
more  than  liable  to  be  swindled  in  the  deal,  as  the  fakir 
requires  immediate  concealment  of  the  purchase,  which, 
when  examined  by  the  vendee  in  the  quiet  of  his  own 
room  often  turns  out  to  be  a  harmless  work  resembling 
only  in  the  binding  the  supposed  purchase. 

The  confidence  men,  who  invite  the  incoming  vis- 
itor to  view  the  scene  of  the  great  explosion  on  the 
lake  front,  and  suggest  trips  to  other  places  where 
startling  events  have  not  occurred,  discover,  by  skillful 
questioning,  the  weaknesses  of  their  dupe.  They  arouse 
his  innate,  but  dormant,  wish  to  take  a  chance  at  some 
game  that  seems  to  him  certain  of  a  rich  return.    He 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum,  129 

is  easily  induced  to  play  and  allowed  to  win  a  small 
stake,  merely  to  excite  greater  interest  and  establish 
the  conviction  that  he  can  "beat  the  game."  Naturally 
he  plunges  ahead,  until  the  moment  comes,  set  by 
his  trappers,  when  he  is  cheated,  robbed  and  goes 
"flat  broke."  The  dupe  may,  or  may  not,  report  his 
loss  to  the  police.  If  he  does,  and  it  happens  to 
be  one  of  consequence,  detectives  may  be  detailed 
to  search  for  the  swindlers ;  but  if  the  loss  is 
small  in  amount,  however  important  to  the  loser, 
the  dupe  is  more  likely  to  be  laughed  at  than 
aided  by  the  officers  of  the  law. 

To  this  class  belong  cabmen  who  rob  drunken 
men,  and  "divvy"  with  the  police ;  commission 
houses,  which  secure  consignments  of  goods  for 
sale  by  false  representations ;  grocery  grafters,  who 
solicit  throughout  the  country  orders  for  groceries, 
claiming  to  represent  wholesale  houses,  ship  an 
inferior  grade  and  collect  C.  O.  D.  at  the  prices 
charged  for  the  superior  grade;  Board  of  Trade 
sharks,  who  "welch"  their  clients'  money  by  charg- 
ing up  fictitious  losses,  when  the  figures  will  not 
appear  to  He ;  the  false  claimants  for  personal  in- 
juries   alleged     to     have    been    caused    through    the 


130  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

negligence  of  wealthy  corporations,  such  as  street 
car  lines,  manufacturing  companies  and  rolling 
mills,  or  by  the  city,  from  defective  sidewalks,  un- 
guarded street  excavations,  etc.,  etc. ;  bakers  who 
sell  unlabeled  and  underweight  bread;  the  gold 
brick  and  gold  filings  sharper;  the  electric  and 
mining  stock  swindler,  and  the  advertiser  seeking 
a  governess  to  accompany  himself  and  family 
abroad.  These  men  have  "irresistible  tendencies" 
to  work  their  several  games.  They  cannot  help 
it,  they  say.  Like  kleptomaniacs,  or  "Jack  the 
Hair  Clipper,"  they  are  impelled  by  nature  to  the 
commission  of  their  crimes.  In  their  own  judg- 
ment they  ought  not  to  be  punished,  because  they 
are  the  victims  of  defective  brains.  But  they  are 
just  as  cunning  as  the  hair  clipper,  just  as  con- 
scious that  they  are  law  breakers  as  he  was  when 
he  mailed  to  the  Chief  of  Police  in  his  own  words 
the  following  note,  enclosing  some  of  the  braids 
of  hair  he  had  clipped  from  the  head  of  a  young 
girl,  viz: 

"A    clue  for    J.     K.'s    cheap    skates.      Will    send 
more  when  I  get  cheap  stuff  like  this. 

Jack." 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  131 

Pf  this  same  class  are  men  who  conduct  "dip- 
loma mills"  and  make  doctors,  especially  in  one  day. 
They  sell  their  parchments  as  freely  as  a  saloon- 
keeper does  his  beer,  and  then  claim  that  because 
a  college  confers  distinctive  degrees  upon  men  of 
prominence,  without  a  course  of  study  and  exam- 
ination, they  are  justified  in  launching  doctors  by 
the  score  upon  unsuspecting  communities,  "with- 
out study  and  examination,"  to  discredit  the  med- 
ical profession,  and  send  men,  women  and  children 
to  premature  graves.  Like  McTeague,  who  ac- 
quired his  knowledge  of  dentistry  from  the  seven 
volumes  of  "Allen's  Practical  Dentist,"  they  obtain 
their  knowledge  of  diseases  from  quack  publica- 
tions, newspapers  and  magazine  articles.  They 
use  nothing  but  "the  purest  of  the  earth's  produc- 
tions in  their  treatment,  and  no  minerals  or  pois- 
onous materials  of  any  kind  are  ever  permitted  to 
enter  your  system."  Their  prices  range  from 
"one  dollar  up."  "A  positive  guarantee  is  given 
in  every  case  treated,  so  you  have  nothing  to  risk 
in  any  way.  Your  money  back  on  demand  if  not 
satisfied."     They   can   wash   kidneys    so   clean,   that 


132  ^Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

if  you  are  a  woman  and  have  not  extended  your 
arms  in  years,  after  taking  the  first  box  of  kidney 
pills  you  "can  raise  them,  and  twist  your  hair," 
and  after  the  second,  "dress  yourself,  perform  your 
household  duties,"  and  "life  will  again  take  on  a  bright 
hue"  for  you.  Bald  heads  respond  to  the  "re- 
markable effects"  of  their  discoveries,  with  joyful 
alacrity.  Gray  hair  goes  into  hiding,  and  "thick 
and  lustrous  eyebrows  and  eye  lashes"  blossom 
forth  on  one  application,  as  lilac  bushes  do  in  the 
spring  time  at  the  first  touch  of  the  warmth  of 
the  sun's  rays.  Their  remedies  are  "no  longer 
experiments,  they  are  medical  certainties."  They 
"create  solid  flesh,  muscles  and  strength,  clear  the 
brain,  and  make  the  blood  pure  and  rich."  For  hu- 
manity's sake,  distinguished  Mayors,  ex-Mayors,  city 
treasurers,  scholars,  soldiers,  ex-state  senators  and  sen- 
ators, representatives,  lawyers  and  judges,  lend  their 
beaming  countenances,  when  fully  restored  to  health, 
for  the  uses  of  these  quacks,  until  the  daily  press 
has  become  a  portrait  gallery  of  rebuilt  and  re- 
vitalized men,  who,  if  disease  had  the  clutch  upon 
them    they    so    felicitously  describe — in    the    stere- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  133 

otyped  words  of  the  quack — ought  to  have  been 
dead,  buried  and  mourned  long  ago.  These  dis- 
tinguished men  in  American  Hfe,  are  merely  selling 
their  faces  for  promotion  purposes,  much  as  the 
titled  Englishman  sells  his  title. 

Of  all  the  sources  of  police  graft,  in  addition 
to  pool  rooms  and  policy  shops,  gambling  is  the 
most  prolific.  There  are  in  Chicago  over  7,000 
saloons  and  nearly  2,000  cigar  stores.  The  num- 
ber of  gambling  houses  proper  is  unknown,  but 
the  list  swells  into  the  hundreds.  The  saloon  and 
cigar  stores  have  as  a  general  rule  a  gambling 
annex.  Gambling  houses  proper,  as  known  some 
years  ago,  have  no  longer  the  permanency  they 
then  had.  Roulette  and  faro,  especially,  are  sleep- 
ing, and  awaken  only  at  infrequent  intervals.  The 
negro  game  of  craps,  and  the  national  game  of 
poker,  particularly  stud  poker,  have  become  the 
substitutes  for  the  wheel  and  the  lay  out.  In  two- 
thirds  of  the  saloons  and  cigar  stores  poker  and 
stud  poker  are  played,  and  in  many  of  the  saloons, 
especially  the  all  night  variety,  the  crap  table  is 
part   of   the   necessary    equipment.      It  is    estimated 


134  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

that  poker  games  are  in  progress  in  over  eight 
thousand  of  the  saloons,  cigar  stores,  barber  shops 
and  bakeries,  every  night,  while  gambling  houses 
with  the  roulette  and  faro  barred,  add  over  one 
thousand  to  the  number.  Craps  are  shot  even  at 
the  doors  of  some  of  the  theaters.  All  this  is  known 
to  the  police,  tolerated  by  the  police,  and  taxed 
by  the  police.  Take  the  average  cigar  store  for 
illustration.  In  the  rear  are  rooms  neatly  fitted 
up  and  supplied  with  three  or  more  poker  tables. 
The  rake  off  to  the  house  goes  on  just  as  in  the 
regularly  equipped  gambling  house.  The  games 
are  played  by  men  of  all  classes  in  life  below  the 
society  men  and  men  of  wealth,  who  get  their 
amusement  at  the  club.  The  clubs  all  forbid  poker, 
but  the  tabooing  order  is  "more  honored  in  its 
breach  than  its  observance."  In  the  cigar  stores 
and  saloons,  workingmen,  artisans,  clerks,  and  the 
loafing  skin  gambler,  participate  in  the  game.  The 
latter  is  quickly  spotted,  and  placed  under  the  ban. 
The  proprietor  requires  the  games  to  be  square, 
in  so  far  as  he  can  control  them.  The  losses  of 
the  cigar  store  players  are  more  severe  upon  them 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  135 

than  are  those  of  the  gamblers  who  play  for 
higher  stakes.  The  wages  of  the  workingman, 
clerks  and  artisans  are  their  only  gambling  capital. 
They  have  no  bank  accounts  to  draw  upon.  The 
home  suffers;  wife  and  children  are  the  indirect 
victims.  Theirs  is  a  cash  game.  When  wages 
are  exhausted,  the  unearned  wage  is  mortgaged  to 
the  loan  "sharks."  These  greedy  and  heartless 
wretches  lure  the  clerk  earning  a  fair  salary  to 
borrow  from  them  at  reasonable  rates,  and  upon  a 
"strictly  confidential"  basis.  The  employer  is  not 
to  know  of  the  transaction.  The  clerk  is  soon  in 
the  shark's  strong  jaws.  He  must  pay  what  is  de- 
manded, or  the  employer,  the  rules  of  whose  es- 
tablishment forbid  dealings  with  the  "shark,"  will 
be  made  aware  of  the  violation  of  his  rules,  and 
the  clerk's  embarrassment  commences.  Rather  than 
risk  discharge  from  his  position,  and  to  escape 
from  the  "shark"  jaws,  the  frightened  clerk  pays 
in  monthly  installments  double  the  amount  of  his 
loan,  plus  a  sum  for  a  fee  to  an  attorney  who 
was  never  retained.  All  this  is  so  much  blood 
money,  flowing  from  the  wounds  made  by  the 
"shark's"  sharp  teeth. 


136  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  minor  is  not  prevented  in  the  cigar  store 
joints  from  gaming  any  more  than  he  is  prevented 
from  drinking  at  the  saloon  bar.  Nightly,  over  this 
vast  city,  young  men  are  succumbing  to  the  ter- 
rible fascination  of  gaming.  Nightly,  temptations, 
almost  irresistible,  are  preying  upon  their  minds. 
The  honesty  of  their  intentions  is  gradually  under- 
mined, and  almost  before  they  awaken  to  a  reali- 
zation of  the  truth,  they  have  committed  some 
theft  and  commenced  a  downward  career.  Men 
who  filled  high  positions  of  trust  and  earned  large 
salaries  are  today  inmates  of  the  state  penitentiary, 
led  away  by  the  fascination  and  excitement  of  the 
gaming  table.  The  evils  of  gambling,  the  intensity 
of  the  love  of  the  average  man  for  indulgence  in 
its  exhilaration,  the  wide  spread  use  of  it  in  the 
home,  the  club,  the  stag  parties,  and  so  on  down 
to  the  lowest  joints  in  the  slums,  have  been  the 
themes  of  every  writer  who  attempts  to  depict  the 
daily  life  of  great  cities. 

It  exists  in  the  form  of  prizes  in  progressive 
euchre  parties,  in  social  gatherings,  in  the  raffles 
of    the  church  fairs,  the  voting  for  the  most  pop- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  137 

ular  man  or  woman,  as  city  or  county  stenographer, 
popular  firemen  or  policemen ;  in  guessing  contests 
in  the  solution  of  puzzles;  or  wherever  the  ele- 
ment of  chance  enters  into  the  affairs  of  life, 
from  which  amusement  is  sought  to  be  drawn. 
Whether  it  is  a  wheat  deal  on  the  board  of  trade 
in  which  millions  are  involved,  or  the  cast  of  the 
dice  by  newsboys  and  boot  blacks  in  the  alleys 
and  upon  the  sidewalks  of  the  city,  the  controlling 
passion  is  there — the  passion  for  gain  at  the 
whim  of  chance.  Judgment  may  prompt  the  wheat 
deal,  but  unless  judgment  promises  large  profits 
the  incentive  to  engage  in  the  manipulation  of  the 
markets  is  absent.  The  possible  toil  and  mental 
worry  is  overlooked  in  the  hope  of  great  gain 
without  correspondingly  prolonged  labor.  Millions  fly 
away  in  great  gambling  speculations  as  easily  and 
as  swiftly  as  the  penny  of  the  newsboy  takes  its 
flight  from  one  to  the  other  of  the  inveterate  little 
gamblers,  to  be  found  among  these  sharp  witted 
waifs  of  the  street.  It  goes  on  in  billiard  halls, 
where  "hap  hazard"  is  openly  played;  at  saloon 
bars  where  the  loser  at  dice  "pays  for  the  drinks." 


138  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum, 

It  is  to  be  seen  in  beer  halls,  summer  gardens, 
among  well  dressed  people  who  carry  the  dice  with 
them,  of  the  usual  size,  or  smaller,  with  fancy  box- 
guard,  and  who  "shake"  for  the  drinks  and  din- 
ners, not  so  much  as  a  matter  of  gambling,  as 
for  the  zest  it  gives  to  their  party,  or  their  outing. 
It  controls  political  picnics  in  the  fakers'  attractions 
that  follow  them,  and  in  the  prizes  offered  to  the 
winner,  of  boys'  and  girls',  women  and  fat  men's, 
races,  or  for  which  artistic  cake  walkers  and  rag- 
time dancers  compete.  Civil  and  criminal  trials  are 
even  chosen  as  events  upon  which  to  place  a  wager. 
The  frequency  of  elections,  the  daily  horse  racing 
contests  throughout  the  world,  base  ball  games  in 
season,  prize  fights  between  professionals,  club  ath- 
letic contests,  policy  shops  with  their  daily  draw- 
ings, and  lotteries,  all  arouse  the  cupidity  of  the 
seeker  after  quick  gains  without  physical  labor. 
"Bet  you  five"  settles  many  a  mathematical,  histori- 
cal, political  or  economic  proposition,  contrary  to 
the  truth. 

Races,    accompanied    by    the    usual    retinue     of 
book  makers,  are  conducted  by  a  wealthy  club,  many 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  139 

of  whose  members  are  leaders  in  civic  bodies  formed 
for  the  betterment  of  local  government,  and  conse- 
quently for  the  suppression  of  vice.  Grand  juries 
report  month  after  month  their  inability  to  obtain 
the  co-operation  of  the  police  in  gathering  evidence 
against  gamblers  and  landlords  whereon  to  found 
indictments.  Each  grand  jury  when  empanelled 
hears  from  the  bench  the  monotonous  song  "Gentle- 
men, bucket  shops  exist,  investigate  them,"  to- 
gether with  such  musical  accompaniment,  as  may 
be  added  by  the  judge,  in  the  way  of  moralizing 
upon  their  wickedness. 

Fashionable  women  have  their  down  town  clubs. 
There  they  meet,  smoke  cigarettes,  take  their  drinks 
from  the  sideboard  "just  like  men,"  gamble  for 
excitement,  lose  their  pin-money  and  diamonds 
with  the  abandon  of  a  virgin,  "willing  to  be  rid 
of  her  name." 

The  vice  and  fascination  of  gambhng  are  so 
well  known  and  understood  by  great  merchants 
that  they  employ  a  corps  of  detectives  to  keep 
watch  over  their  confidential  employes,  whose 
movements  are  the  subject  matter  of  daily  reports 


I40  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

to  their  employers.  The  bond  companies,  which 
insure  the  honesty  of  clerks  and  managers  entrusted 
with  the  handling  of  money,  receive  from  their 
spotters  the  earliest  reports  of  the  actions  of  em- 
ployes indicative  of  living  beyond  the  yearly  sal- 
ary paid  them  by  the  houses  with  which  they  are 
connected. 

Gambling,  although  condemned  by  all  moralists 
as  a  degrading  vice,  is  recognized  by  some  as  aid- 
ing the  development  of,  certain  qualities  of  im- 
measurable service  in  the  intensity  of  the  struggle 
for  business  existence  prevailing  in  the  aggressive 
commercialism  of  this  age.  Lecky  asserts :  "Even 
the  gambling  table  fosters  among  its  more  skill- 
ful votaries  a  kind  of  moral  nerve,  a  capacity  for 
bearing  losses  with  calmness,  and  controlling  the 
force  of  the  desires,  which  is  scarcely  exhibited  in 
equal  perfection  in  any  other  sphere."  Whatever 
may  be  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  "controlling 
the  force  of  the  desires,"  it  is  certain  that  among 
the  young  men  of  today,  in  all  classes  of  society, 
the  desires  for  intoxicants  and  sensuality  are  past 
control  when  associated  with  gambling.    In  its  most 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  141 

seductive  forms  its  principal  aids  are  the  gilded 
saloon,  and  the  harlot's  enslaving  smile.  The  neces- 
sity for  means  with  which  to  gratify  aroused 
passion  in  both  respects,  comes  through  contact 
with  the  gaming  table;  hence,  the  houses  of  ill 
repute,  assignation  houses  and  the  innocent  looking 
"Hotel"  nestling  in  the  middle  of  the  down  town 
business  blocks,  are  the  direct  allies  of  the  gambling 
hells  in  the  development  of  crime — in  adding  to, 
rather  than  in  "controlling"  the  force  of  the  de- 
sires.     "Sensuality,"     said     a    distinguished     writer, 

"is    the    vice    of    young    men    and    of    old    nations." 

Another,  tracing  the  effects  of  gaming  on  human 
passions,  wisely  observes,  "the  habit  of  gambling 
is  very  often  allied  with,  and  is  even  an  incentive 
to,  the  practice  of  other  vices,  whose  darkness  is 
beyond  dispute.  The  ordinary  aspect  of  a  return 
from  a  race  meeting  will  fully  confirm  this.  There 
we  find  that  drunkenness,  licentiousness  and  gamb- 
ling go  hand  in  hand,  a  well  assorted  trio  whose 
ministry  to  separate  passions  is  not  inconsistent 
but  consistent  with  mutual  incitement  and  co- 
operation in  the  destruction  of  the  honor  and  pur- 
ity  and   strength   of   men." 


142  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

While  gambling  is  not  now  conducted  "openly," 
a  word  which  has  reference  only  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  down  town  establishments  in  which  faro 
and  roulette  were  formerly  played,  it  is  conducted 
under  police  protection  all  over  this  city  in  forms 
more  inviting,  more  disastrous  to  the  embryotic 
gamblers  who  patronize  it,  than  if  the  large  estab- 
lishments were  in  full  operation  as  of  yore.  The 
latter  could  not  invite  the  younger  class  of  gamb- 
lers to  enter  the  play,  because  of  their  lack  of 
capital;  the  smaller,  widely  scattered,  and  police 
guarded,  cigar  store  and  saloon  games,  accept 
smaller  sums  of  money,  parts  of  a  dollar,  for  a 
stack  of  poker  chips,  from  the  anxious  entrant  to 
the  game.  Prior  to  the  last  election  a  leading 
evening  newspaper  accused  the  city  executive  with 
farming  out  the  slum  district  to  two  aldermen  of 
unsavory  reputation,  with  leave  to  them  to  extort 
money  from  gaming  houses,  high  and  low,  within 
its  limits,  for  their  personal  benefit,  in  consideration 
of  their  opposing,  in  the  council,  the  passage  of 
ordinances  relating  to  the  extension  of  street  car 
privileges.     Its    condemnation    of    this    bargain    was 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  143 

severe,  and  yet,  later  on,  it  was  the  most  persistent 
of  that  executive's  supporters  for  re-election. 

The  coon  gamblers,  thieves,  thugs  and  pimps 
were  all  on  the  staffs  of  these  aldermen.  They 
followed  these  worthies  into  the  campaign,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  eminently  respectable  news- 
paper referred  to.  Inspired  by  such  leadership 
"Spreader,"  "Sawed  Off,"  "The  Cuckoo,"  "Book 
Agent,"  "Deacon,"  "Grab  All,"  "Duck,"  "Shoe- 
string," "Scalper,"  "Humpty,"  "Hungry  Sid," 
"Seedy,"  "Talky,"  "Whiskers,"  "Noisy,"  "Fig," 
"Old  Hoss,"  "Slick,"  "Ruby,"  "Sunday  School," 
and  "Mushmouth,"  captains  in  the  corps  of  sports 
felt  themselves  respectable,  led  their  followers  from 
the  barrel  and  lodging  houses  with  a  rush  to  the 
polls,  and  achieved  a  startling  victory.  Over  all 
this  horrible  saturnalia  of  vice,  the  colors  of  the 
police  force  float  in  token  of  protection.  The  brave 
men  of  that  force,  morally  degraded  by  the  obedi- 
ence they  are  compelled  to  yield  to  unworthy  supe- 
riors want  merely  the  opportunity  to  perform  their 
full  duty,  not  only  as  patrolmen  but  as  patriotic 
American    citizens.     The    time    when     they    will    be 


144  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

permitted  to  do  so  seems  far  distant,  unless  an 
aroused  public  opinion  shall  speedily  pronounce 
against  the  further  continuation  of  a  policy  of 
protection  to  crime  and  debauchery  supported  by 
the  men  chosen  to  war  unceasingly  with  both. 

The  dens  of  the  sexual  pervert  of  the  male  sex, 
found  in  the  basements  of  buildings  in  the 
most  crowded,  but  least  respectable  parts  of  cer- 
tain streets,  with  immoral  theaters,  cheap  muse- 
ums, opium  joints  and  vile  concert  saloons  sur- 
rounding them,  are  the  blackest  holes  of  iniquity 
that  ever  existed  in  any  country  since  the  dawn 
of  history.  A  phrase  was  recently  coined  in  New 
York  which  conveys — in  the  absence  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  describing  them  in  decent  language — the 
meaning  of  the  brute  practices  indulged  in  these 
damnable  resorts,  and  the  terrible  consequences  to 
humanity  as  a  result  of  unnatural  habits — "Paresis 
Halls." 

No  form  of  this  indulgence  described  by  writers 
on  the  history  of  morals,  no  species  of  sodomy 
the  debased  minds  of  these  devils  can  devise,  is 
missing    from    the    programme    of    their    diabolical 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  145 

orgies.  In  divine  history  we  read  of  the  abomina- 
tions of  the  strange  women  of  Israel,  with  their 
male  companions,  in  their  worship  of  Moloch,  Bel- 
phegor  and  Baal,  and  of  the  death  penalties  pro- 
nounced by  Aloses  against  the  participants  in  them. 
To  suppress  the  brutish  immorality,  and  prevent 
the  spread  of  disease  arising  from  it,  the  Jewish 
law  giver  put  to  death  all  his  Midianite  female 
captives  except  the  virgins.  Profane  history  tells 
of  the  infamies  of  the  Baylonian  banquets,  of  the 
incestuous  and  "promiscuous  combats  of  sensuality" 
of  the  Lydians  and  the  Persians ;  of  the  Athenian 
Auletrides,  or  female  flute  players,  who  danced 
and  furnished  music  at  the  banquets  of  the  nobil- 
ity and  wallowed  in  the  filth  of  every  sensual  in- 
decency, and  of  the  polluted  condition  of  Roman 
life,  prior  to,  and  as  the  Christian  era  da\Vned,  but 
in  all  the  untranslatable  literature  of  eroticism  no 
description  of  the  debaucheries  of  the  ancients,  if 
freely  interpreted  into  English  from  the  dead  lan- 
guages in  which  they  are  preserved,  could  depict 
the  nastiness  these  yahoos  are  reported  as  having 
introduced  into  our  midst,  and  rendered  more  hate- 


146  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

ful  and  disgusting  by  the  squalor  of  their  under- 
ground abodes.  The  young  are  lured  by  them, 
ruined  in  health  and  seared  in  conscience.  The  very 
slang  of  the  streets  is  surcharged  with  expressions, 
derived  from,  and  directly  traceable  to,  the  names 
of   these   unmentionable   acts   of  lechery. 

Not  content  with  the  private  and  crafty  pur- 
suit of  their  calling,  they  must  flaunt  it  in  the 
faces  of  the  public  and  under  the  very  eyes  of  the 
police,  in  a  series  of  annual  balls  held  by  the 
"fruits"  and  the  '"cabmen,"  advertised  by  placards 
extensively  all  over  the  city.  At  these  disreputable 
gatherings  the  pervert  of  the  male  persuasion  dis- 
plays his  habits  by  aping  everything  feminine.  In 
speech,  walk,  dress  and  adornment  they  are  to  all 
appearances  women.  The  modern  mysteries  of  the 
toilet,  used  to  build  up  and  round  out  the  female 
figure,  are  applied  in  the  make-up  of  the  male 
pervert.  Viewed  from  the  galleries,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  distinguish  them  from  the  sex  they  are 
imitating.  Theirs  is  no  maid-marian  costume ;  it 
is  strictly  in  the  line  of  the  prevailing  styles 
among    fashionable    women,    from    female    hair    to 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  147 

pinched  feet.  The  convenient  bar  suppHes  the 
liquid  excitement,  and  when  the  women  a'rrivals 
from  the  bagnios  swarm  into  the  hall,  led  in  many 
instances  by  the  landlady,  white  or  black,  and  the 
streets  and  saloons  have  contributed  their  quotas, 
the  dance  begins  and  holds  on  until  the  morning 
hours  approach.  The  acts  are  those  mainly  sug- 
gestive of  indecency.  Nothing,  except  the  gross 
language  and  easy  familiarity  in  deportment,  coupled 
with  the  assumed  falsetto  voice  and  effeminate 
manners  of  the  pervert,  would  reveal  to  the  unin- 
formed observer  what  a  seething  mass  of  human 
corruption  he  is  witnessing.  As  the  "encyclopedia 
of  the  art  of  making  up"  puts  it,  "the  exposed 
parts  of  the  human  anatomy"  usually  displayed  in 
fashionable  society  are  counterfeited  so  perfectly,  the 
wigs  are  selected  and  arranged  with  such  nicety, 
the  eyebrows  and  lashes  so  dexterously  treated,  and 
the  features  so  artistically  touched  with  cosmetics, 
as  to  make  it  very  difficult,  at  first  glance,  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  impostor  and  the  real  wom- 
an. The  big  hands  and  tawdry  dresses,  the  large 
though  pinched  feet  and  the  burly  ankle,  betray 
the  sex  of  the  imitating  pervert. 


148  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

No  reason,  except  that  the  pohce  are  paid  for 
non-interference  with  these  vice  pitted  revels,  can 
be  given  for  their  toleration.  The  city's  officials 
are  either  in  collusion  with  their  projectors,  they 
are  incompetent,  or  are  the  willing  tools  of  these 
stinking  body  scavengers.  These  beasts  look  with 
disdain  upon  the  votaries  of  natural  pleasures, 
and  have  an  insane  pride  in  their  hopeless  deg- 
radation. 

The  opium  joints  are  closely  related  sources 
of  iniquity  to  the  pervert's  haunts.  Under  one 
of  the  worst  of  the  all  night  saloons,  conducted 
by  a  politician  of  the  first  ward,  who  belongs  to  the 
party  of  the  Bath  House  and  Hinky  Dink,  and  who 
"touched"  the  Hon.  Richard  Croker  of  New  York 
for  a  small  loan,  the  largest  of  these  execrable 
cellars  is  protected.  It  is  but  a  step  from  the  wine 
rooms  of  the  saloon  to  the  solace  of  the  pipe.  The 
depraved  of  both  sexes  in  those  moments  when 
despair  seizes  them,  when  some  recollection  of 
childhood,  or  of  home,  arouses  in  them  the  dor- 
mant good  still  remaining  in  their  hearts,  when, 
as  they  look   into  the  future,  they  can   discern  no 


1 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  149 

ray  of  hope,  but  are  appalled  at  the  frightful  end 
which  must  be  theirs,  shut  out  the  horrors  of  their 
situation  in  life  by  seeking  a  paradise  built  upon 
"the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision."  In  this  joint, 
since  reference  to  it  was  written,  a  man  died  from 
the  effects  of  smoking  the  pipe.  The  woman  who 
accompanied  him,  the  bartender  and  the  keeper  of 
the  joint  were  placed  under  arrest.  The  police 
expressed  amazement  at  the  revelation  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  joint,  as  did  the  proprietor  of  the 
saloon.  It  was,  of  course,  closed,  and  a  number 
of  other  like  resorts  were  then  raided.  Press  com- 
ments upon  this  death  appeared  as  follows: 

"In  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  are  plenty  of 
laws  against  them,  opium  dens  and  objectionable 
grogshops  are  among  the  hardest  things  in  the 
world  to  exterminate.  The  only  reasonable  ex- 
planation for  this  is  that  their  proprietors  must 
have  influence  with  officers  who  are  employed  by 
the  people  to  execute  the  laws.  'The  police  close 
these  places,'  said  an  officer  despairingly,  referring 
to  dens  like  that  in  which  the  man  Adams  died 
Sunday  night,  'but  they  spring  up  again  in  a  day.' 


150  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

"The  police  seem  to  be  downcast  over  it.  Yet 
the  causes  of  the  'springing  up'  are  as  plain  as 
the  nose  on  one's  face,  and  the  means  of  removing 
them  as  evident  as  one's  hand. 

"Access  to  the  den  in  which  Adams  died  was 
had  through  the  delectable  O.  saloon,  operated  by 
S.  V.  P.,  and  the  den  itself  was  rented  by  V.  P. 
The  levee  statesman  says  he  had  no  idea  his  base- 
ment was  used  for  an  opium  den.  He  thought  the 
procession  of  drunken  and  dazed  men  and  women 
who  tottered  through  his  saloon  and  went  down 
his  basement  stairs  all  night  were  going  for  their 
laundry. 

"V.  P.'s  statement  is  entitled  to  as  much  consid- 
eration as  the  guileless  protestations  of  the  gentle- 
man who  is  caught  with  the  chicken  under  his  coat. 
V.  P.  is  responsible  for  the  opium  den  and  as 
soon  as  the  law  lays  a  hand,  in  earnest,  on  the 
landlord  the  opium  dens  will  cease  'springing  up.' 

"The  police  knew  that  an  opium  den  was  run- 
ning in  V.  P.'s  basement.  They  had  been  amply 
warned  of  it.  If  they  had  raided  the  place  a  few 
times  and  sent  the  proprietor  and  inmates  to  the 
bridewell  it  would  have  stayed  closed. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  151 

"There  is  a  little  virtue  in  sticking  to  one's  na- 
tive vices.  Western  races  come  honestly  by  drunk- 
enness and  gambling.  But  why  tolerate  the  de- 
liberate importation  and  cultivation  of  this  strange 
oriental  bestiality?  This  ingrafted  vice  must  make 
its  own  soil.  Why  should  the  police  treat  it  so 
leniently?  A  hundred-dollar  fine  for  every  per- 
son found  in  an  opium  joint  and  a  modicum  of 
police  activity,  with  the  demanding  of  a  strict  ac- 
count from  the  guilty  landlord,  will  quickly  put 
a  damper  on  the  opium  dens.  Every  month  that 
they  are  tolerated  they  get  a  firmer  root." 

These  resorts  are  patronized  by  others  than  the 
fallen  women  and  the  criminal  classes.  Like  slum- 
ming, it  is  a  fad  ''to  hit  the  pipe  just  once"  by 
some  adventure  seeking  people  in  other  walks  of 
life.  The  habit  of  opium  smoking  is  easily  ac- 
quired, and,  when  acquired,  the  smoker  becomes 
a  slave  to  its  use.  There  are  between  two  and 
three  hundred  of  these  smoking  rooms  in  Chi- 
cago. The  number  of  persons  addicted  to  smok- 
ing opium  cannot  be  stated  with  accuracy.  Esti- 
mates vary  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand,  the  num- 


152 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 


ber  probably  lies  between  these  two  estimates.  In 
the  Chinese  quarters  the  penetrating  odor  of  opium 
smoke  is  plainly  perceptible  and  is  thrown  off  from 
the  garments  of  passing  Chinamen,  or  is  detected 
as  one  enters  a  restaurant  or  laundry  presided 
over  by  the  oriental.  The  "dope"  soon  affects  the 
complexion,  and  the  features  wear  a  dejected  ap- 
pearance. The  movements  of  the  victims  are 
listless,  almost  lifeless.  In  the  saloon  referred  to, 
a  constant  procession  of  men  and  women,  old  and 
young,  come  and  go  up  and  down  the  stairway  to 
the  region  below.  It  is  not  guarded  with  any 
degree  of  care,  because  it  is  protected  from  the 
law's  aggression,  except  occasionally,  when  by  way 
of  diversion  it  is  pulled.  Then  its  patrons  get  a 
quiet  tip  to  keep  away,  consequently  few  occu- 
pants are  found.  The  old  pipes  and  a  small  quan- 
tity of  the  dope  are  graciously  permitted  to  be 
borne  away  in  triumph  by  the  officers.  New  sup- 
plies are  provided,  and  the  baleful  business  resumes 
its  accustomed  routine. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Common  Council — Boodlers — Bribers — Council  of 
1899 — Powers  of — Misuse  of — Price  of  Votes — 
Passage  of  Boodle  Ordinances — Public  Works 
Department  and  Bureaus — Illegal  Contracts 
— Street  Repairing,  Etc. — Civil  Service  Com- 
mission— History  of — Present  Board  Tools  of 
Mayor — Examination  by — Examples  of — At- 
tacks Upon  Law — Special  Assessments — As- 
phalt Ring — Fire  Department — County  Gov- 
ernment— Insane  Asylum — Sale  of  "Cadav- 
ers'' —  Contracts  —  Sheriff's  Office  —  Jury 
Bribers — Judges — Revenue  Law — Tax  Dodgers 
—  Town  Boards  —  Coroner's  Office  —  Press 
Trust — Civic  Societies — Berry  Committee's 
Report — Baxter  Committee — Opening  Testi- 
mony— Conclusion. 

For  a  generation  the  Common  Council  of  Chi- 
cago has  been  governed  by  a  majority  of  "boodlers." 
Aldermen  have  been,  in  that  period,  fairly  repre- 
sentative of  the  wards  by  which  they  were  elected. 
The  various  nationalities,  clustered  together  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  give  rise  to  the  naming  of  a  ward 
according   to   the   nativity   of    its    inhabitants,,    such 


154  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

as  Polish,  Swedish,  Bohemian,  German,  Irish,  etc., 
have  selected  as  their  representatives  in  the  Coun- 
cil, men  who,  as  a  rule,  in  private  life  were  honest. 
Their  selection  was  usually  upon  strictly  party 
grounds.  The  "independent"  voter,  in  municipal 
elections,  is  a  growth  of  quite  recent  years.  The 
class  appears  to  be  increasing  with  great  rapidity 
and  to  be  finding  a  means  of  concentrating  its 
strength  at  the  polls. 

As  honest  as  an  alderman  may  be  when  he  first 
takes  his  seat,  he  soon  finds  himself  surrounded 
by  influences  which  appear  to  exert  a  fascinating 
power  over  him.  He  must  elect  to  be  for  or 
against  the  gang.  Prior  to  the  allowance  of  a 
yearly  salary  the  temptation  to  join  the  gang  was 
heightened  by  the  promising  returns,  in  a  pecu- 
niary way,  which  the  gang  could  almost  guarantee 
the  incoming  member.  An  alderman  "once  pre- 
possessed is  half  seduced"  and,  since  it  is  almost 
axiomatic  that  the  total  seduction  of  a  prepos- 
sessed alderman  is  a  mere  matter  of  time  and  op- 
portunity, the  fall  always  comes  when  some  high 
spirited,    progressive,    and    perhaps,    God-professing 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  155 

citizen,  offers  from  his  purse  a  goodly  compensa- 
tion to  the  gang  for  the  grant  of  some  public 
privilege.  Thus  the  pubHc  privilege  is  seized  upon 
by  the  aldermanic  gang  as  a  private  privilege 
which  it  disposes  of  to  the  broad-clothed  briber  at 
a  price  satisfactory  to  its  members.  The  bribers 
are  found  in  that  sanctified  element  of  the  com- 
munity which  attends  church  under  the  pretext  of 
fearing  and  worshipping  God. 

"But  yet,  O  Lord !  confess  I  must, 
At  times  I'm  fash'd  wi'  fleshly  lust ; 
An'  sometimes,  too,  wi'  wordly  trust 

Vile  self  gets  in ! 
But  thou  rememb'rest  we  are  dust, 
Defil'd  in  sin," 
On  secular  days,  its  leaders,  the  accomplished,  in 
thieves'  parlance,  the   "slick"  bribers,   whisper  their 
temptations  into  the  ears  of  public  servants  willing 
to  become  their  private  tools,  like  the  devil  in  the 
garden  of  Eden,   "who  squat  like  a  toad  close  to 
the  ear  of  Eve." 

The    "gang"    spots    its    man    with    remarkable 
foresight,   and   year   after   year   its   power   to   man- 


156  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

age  public  affairs  to  its  own  private  advantage  has 
become  more  and  more  felt  by  the  public. 

For  the  first  time  in  a  generation,  in  this  year 
1899,  it  is  believed  an  honest  majority  is  in  con- 
trol of  the  council.  The  pleasurable  fact  is  that 
the  majority  was  elected  upon  a  non-partisan  basis, 
the  recommendations  of  a  civic  body,  as  to  the 
honesty  and  capacity  of  the  candidates  in  the  sev- 
eral wards,  having  been  acted  upon  by  the  voters 
in  preference  to  those  of  party  nominating  conven- 
tions. 

It  is,  however,  too  early  to  predict  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  the  council.  "All  signs  fail  in  dry 
weather,"  and  at  this  moment  there  are  no  indi- 
cations of  an  approaching  shower  of  "boodle."  The 
street  car  franchise  question  is  drowsy  and  will  not 
be  awakened  until  the  corporations  controlling  the 
lines  are  ready  to  do  so.  That  they  will  not  do 
so  until  some  legislation  is  enacted  in  1901,  is  too 
apparent  to  require  an  effort  to  prove.  For  one 
year  at  least  there  is  a  majority  in  the  council 
which  will,  it  is  hoped,  protect  public  rights;  and 
it  is  also  hoped  that  in   1900  this  majority  will  not 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  157 

only  be  retained,  but  also  greatly  augmented.  Pro- 
jects may  be  hidden  which  in  the  near,  or  not  dis- 
tant, future,  will  come  forth  to  plague  the  con- 
sciences of  a  number  of  newly  admitted  mem- 
bers and  put  their  integrity  to  the  severest  of 
tests. 

The  power  of  the  Common  Council,  as  confided 
to  it  by  legislation,  over  the  affairs  of  two  millions 
of  people,  is  too  immense  to  be  wielded  by  a  sin- 
gle ordinance  making  body.  Under  our  form  of 
municipal  government  it  controls  the  finances  and 
the  property  of  the  city,  regulates  licenses  to  sell 
liquor  and  to  carry  on  various  classes  of  business, 
such  as  auctioneers,  distillers,  grocers,  lumber  yards, 
livery  stables,  money  changers,  brokers,  junk  stores, 
billiard,  bagatelle  and  pigeon-hole  tables,  pin  alleys, 
ball  alleys,  hackmen,  draymen,  omnibus  drivers, 
carters,  cabmen,  porters,  expressmen,  hawkers,  ped- 
dlers, pawnbrokers,  theatres,  shows  and  amusements, 
and  many  other  classes  of  occupations. 

Its  power  over  the  uses  to  which  the  streets 
may  be  applied  is,  in  one  sense,  limited;  in  another 
almost  unlimited.      While  limited  by  the  charter  to 


158  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  power  to  lay  them  out,  open,  widen  and  improve 
them,  prevent  encroachments  and  obstructions  there- 
on, Hghting  and  cleansing  them,  its  power  to  reg- 
ulate them  is  almost  unlimited.  "To  regulate"  the 
use  of  the  streets  is  a  broad  power,  and  while  sev- 
eral distinct  grants  of  power  of  regulation  are  con- 
tained in  the  statute,  such  as  preventing  the  throw- 
ing of  ashes  and  garbage  upon  them,  their  use 
for  signs,  sign  posts,  awnings,  etc.,  the  carrying 
of  banners,  placards,  advertisements,  etc.,  therein, 
the  flying  of  flags,  banners  or  signs  across  them 
from  house  to  house,  or  traffic  and  sales  upon 
them,  nevertheless,  the  uses  to  which  they  may  be 
applied  in  the  way  of  business  enterprises  for  ad- 
vertising purposes,  are  as  numerous  and  as  varied 
as  the  minds  of  the  originators  of  the  schemes  are 
original  and  unique. 

For  the  right  to  use,  therefore,  in  a  given  way 
in  a  given  ward,  the  "gang"  alderman  long  ago 
established  and  still  maintains  a  schedule  of  rates. 
They  are  graduated  from  the  insignificant  charge 
for  permission  to  "string  a  banner,"  or  establish 
a   fruit   stand,   up  to  the   highly    respectable    "rake 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  159 

off"  demanded  for  the  use  of  them  for  switch 
tracks,  or  street  railway  purposes.  It  is  not  so 
many  years  ago  that  a  leading  morning  newspaper 
furnished  the  public  with  some  information  on 
this  subject,  upon  the  occasion  of  the  passage  of 
an  ordinance  granting  valuable  privileges  to  a 
railway  corporation.  Four  members  of  the  coun- 
cil, not  the  "Big  Four"  of  olden  times,  but  the 
modern  "Big  Four"  leaders  of  "de  gang,"  were 
said  to  have  received  for  their  manipulation  of  the 
ordinance,  and  the  organization  of  their  followers 
for  its  support,  the  quite  comfortable  sum  of  $25,000 
each.  Their  supporters  were  to  receive  $8,000 
each  for  their  votes,  while  the  "go  between"  re- 
ceived $100,000  and  a  few  city  lots.  The  standard 
price  per  vote  for  valuable  franchises  is  $5,000,  yet 
in  a  pinch  of  private  necessity,  a  few  votes  can  be 
commanded  at  lower  figures.  The  contingency  of 
a  possible  veto  is  provided  for,  so  that  in  that  event 
one-fourth  must  be  added  for  the  second  vote  to 
pass  the  measure  over  the  veto.  Thus  it  has 
gone  on  not  only  with  respect  to  street  railway 
grants,  but  also  for  electric  lighting,  telephone  con- 


i6o  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

duits,  gas  pipes,  private  telephone  wires  and  that 
long  list  of  uses  devised  by  business  men  for  the 
advertisement  of  their  personal  interests.  The  pea- 
nut stand  privilege,  the  fruit  stand  privilege,  the 
bootblack  privilege,  the  banner  privilege,  all  pay 
cash  to  some  "gang"  alderman,  as  do  the  policy 
rooms,  pool  rooms  and  saloons  with  wine  room 
privileges. 

It  is  an  amusing,  as  well  as  an  instructive  sight, 
to  witness  a  meeting  of  the  council  upon  an  occa- 
sion when  some  well  announced  "boodle"  ordinance 
is  called  up  for  passage.  The  plan  of  campaign 
has  all  been  arranged  beforehand,  and  the  floor 
leader  selected  to  command  the  movement.  Let  it 
be  an  ordinance  for  granting  the  right  to  a  street 
railway  company  to  lay  down  its  tracks,  and  oper- 
ate its  line,  in  a  given  street.  The  preliminaries 
have  all  been  gone  through  with,  the  signatures  of 
property  owners  verified,  and  the  price  to  be  paid 
for  favorable  votes  agreed  upon.  When  the  ordi- 
nance is  taken  up  its  opponents  are  generally  in 
a  disorganized  condition.  There  is  among  them, 
as  a  general  rule,  no  coherence  of  opposition.     The 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  i6i 

main  object  to  be  attained,  viz.,  the  defeat  of  the 
ordinance  as  it  is  presented,  is  lost  sight  of  in  the 
effort  "to  make  records"  by  the  introduction  of 
amendments,  reflecting  some  individual  idea  of  the 
member  who  offers  it,  without  having  submitted  it 
to  his  associate  opponents  for  their  judgment.  Con- 
sequently they  disagree  among  themselves  and  fall 
to  fighting  each  other,  thereby  weakening  their  op- 
position. Meanwhile  the  "gang"  sits  smilingly  by, 
under  instructions  to  vote  down  all  amendments. 
When  one  is  offered,  of  comparative  unimportance, 
the  quick-witted  lobbyists  of  the  corporations,  Jew 
and  Gentile,  convey  a  tip  to  the  leader  of  the 
"gang"  that  the  amendment  "is  all  right,"  "quite 
agreeable,"  "will  be  accepted,"  etc.,  whereupon  the 
gang's  leader  obligingly  informs  the  chair  that  it 
is  his  profound  belief  the  amendment  is  a  very 
proper  one,  and  it  is  graciously  accepted.  The  op- 
position having  some  little  encouragement,  present 
■other  amendments,  which  are,  of  course,  defeated. 
Somtimes  debate  is  permitted.  If  the  speeches 
could  be  reported  verbatim  and  the  words  spelled 
out    as    pronounced,    it    would    make   Mr.    Doolev 


1 62  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

reflect  on  the  style  of  modern  oratory,  as  pre- 
sented by  the  "mimber  from  Archey  Road."  The 
question  coming  to  a  vote  upon  the  passage  of  the 
ordinance,  the  roll  call  begins.  From  the  "Bath 
House"  on  the  right  comes,  on  the  first  call,  the 
familiar  "Aye."  That  response  is  repeated  by 
every  member  of  the  gang  without  explanation, 
and  in  a  stolid  way,  indicating  contempt  for  public 
opinion.  The  measure  is  now  out  of  the  way. 
Preparations  are  made  for  the  next.  Settlements 
have  to  be  made  and  everybody  satisfied  before  new 
matters  involving  "boodle"  can  be  presented.  Oc- 
casionally there  is  a  loud  "kick"  by  some  slow- 
witted  member  who  fails  to  secure  his  full  share 
of  the  "swag,"  but  he  is  usually  placated  in  some 
manner  best  known  to  the  combination,  and  busi-- 
ness  goes  on  in  the  old  way.  The  division  and 
distribution  of  the  "boodle"  are  matters  of  great 
secrecy  and  adroit  management.  It  is  forced  into 
the  pockets  of  some,  or  finds  its  way  into  them  in 
mysterious  ways.  It  is  discovered  under  a  plate 
at  a  restaurant,  or  under  a  pillow  at  bedtime;  but 
it  seldom  passes  into  the  open  hand,  held  rear- 
wards, as  the  caricaturist  pictures  the  "boodler." 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  163 

A  newspaper  thus  spoke  of  the  members  of  the 
council  belonging  to  the  party  it   represents.      "The 

average   representative    in    the     city     council 

is  a  tramp,  if  not  worse.  He  represents  or  claims 
to  represent  a  political  party  having  respectable 
principles  and  leaders  of  known  good  character  and 
ability.  He  comes  from  twenty-five  or  thirty  dif- 
ferent wards,  some  of  them  widely  separated,  and 
when  he  reaches  the  City  Hall,  whether  from  the 
west,  the  south  or  the  north  division,  he  is  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  a  bummer  and  a  disreputable  who 
can  be  bought  and  sold  as  hogs  are"  bought  and 
sold  at  the  stockyards.  Do  these  vicious  vaga- 
bonds stand  for  the  decency  and  intelligence  of  the 
party  in  Chicago?" 

■This  is  a  picture  drawn  a  few  years  ago,  but  it 
correctly  sketches  a  number  of  the  hold  over 
members  of  the  present  council,  and  a  few  of  the 
old  timers  re-elected. 

The  new  members  of  the  council,  one-half  in 
number,  are  committed,  by  their  ante-election 
pledges,  to  the  policy  of  refusing  the  grant  of 
privileges    to    individuals    or    corporations    without 


i64  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

compensation  to  the  public.  Whatever  of  benefit 
the  pubHc  may  derive  from  this  poHcy,  it  is  not 
quite  clear  that  it  will  operate  as  a  preventive  of 
"boodling."  The  ingenuity  of  the  "boodler"  com- 
bines the  cunning  of  the  sneak  thief,  with  the 
boldness  of  the  highway  robber  in  devising  the 
ways  and  means  to  find  and  secure  his  "stuff." 
It  is  a  matter  of  congratulation  that  the  bood- 
ling species  is  dwindling  away  from  the  public 
view.  How  long  it  will  remain  in  concealment 
depends  upon  how  long  the  independent  voter  wishes 
to  keep  it  concealed. 

The  department  of  the  city  government  to 
which  is  committed  the  control  of  its  public  im- 
provements consists  of  a  number  of  bureaus.  The 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works  controls,  as  part 
of  his  executive  department,  the  City  Engineer, 
Superintendent  of  Streets,  of  Street  and  Alley 
Cleaning,  of  Water,  of  Sewerage,  of  Special  As- 
sessments and  of  Maps.  When  it  is  considered 
that  this  means  the  care  and  management  of  i,iii 
miles  of  improved  and  1,464  miles  of  unimproved 
streets,    112   miles   of   improved  and    1,235   miles   of 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  165 

unimproved  alleys,  making  a  total  of  3,924  miles 
of  streets  and  alleys,  the  letting  of  contracts  for 
their  repair,  improvement  and  cleaning,  and  all  the 
details  of  engineering,  sewerage  and  water  pipe 
extension  bureaus,  involving  the  expenditure  of 
millions  of  dollars,  the  vastness  of  the  public 
interests  entrusted  to  the  Commissioner  may  be 
realized.  Under  every  administration  the  depart- 
ment is  assailed  for  frauds,  stuffed  pay  rolls,  fa- 
voritism and  boodling.  The  administration  now  in 
power  (and  which  has  been  in  power  for  two 
years)  has  not  escaped  criticism.  Powerful  as  that 
criticism  was,  and  founded  in  truth  as  it  was, 
it  apparently  did  not  affect  the  minds  of  a  ma- 
jority of  the  voters.  Contracts  were  let  by  this 
administration,  in  direct  violation  of  the  law  which 
provides  for  a  letting  to  the  lowest  bidder,  after 
advertising  for  bids,  where  the  amount  is  in 
excess  of  $500.  Yet  a  political  favorite,  who  was 
himself  at  one  time  spoken  of  as  a  probable  ap- 
pointee to  the  office  of  Commissioner,  but  who 
stepped  aside,  as  it  is  charged,  as  the  result  of  a 
deal,  obtained  thereby  a  contract  for  street  repairs 


i66  Chicago,  Soman's  Sanctum. 

amounting  to  $230,000,  which  was  never  adver- 
tised for,  but  let  to  him  privately  in  such  a  manner 
so  that  the  vouchers  in  payment  were  drawn  in 
sums  less  than  $500  each.  So  grossly  evasive  of 
the  law  was  this  transaction,  that  it  involved  the 
stoppage  of  payment  of  the  warrants  by  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  city.  A  re-measurement  of  the  work 
was  ordered  by  him.  This  developed  the  astonish- 
ing fact  that,  even  if  the  contract  had  been  prop- 
erly let,  there  was  nevertheless  an  overcharge, 
swindling  in  its  nature,  to  the  extent  of  $60,000. 
The  Comptroller  was,  therefore,  compelled  to  with- 
hold his  sanction  to  the  payment  of  the  vouchers. 
In  some  manner,  however,  they  were  paid  after 
some  slight  reductions  were  made.  This  was  a 
blow  at  the  sterling  integrity  of  the  Comptroller, 
whose  public  services  in  thoroughly  reorganizing 
his  office,  and  placing  it  on  a  business  basis,  and 
whose  devotion  to  public  interests  cost  him  his  life, 
are  the  only  conspicuous  acts,  free  from  shame, 
egotism,  or  corruption,  of  an  administration  to 
which  he  loaned  the  strength  of  his  good  name,  and 
upon   which   he   shed   the    splendor    of    his    ability 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  167 

and  personal  honor.  He  will  be  long  remembered 
as  the  one  oasis  in  a  desert  of  maladministration. 
Both  in  private  and  in  public  walks  Robert  A. 
Waller  lived  an  honorable  life.  He  died  mourned 
by  all  who  knew  him. 

"His  life  was  gentle,  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up 
And  say  to  all  the  world :   This  was  a  man !" 

The  attempt  to  let  the  contract  for  the  use  of  a 
tug  for  service  to  the  cribs,  or  water  intakes,  in 
the  lake,  was  another  breach  of  the  law  so  fla- 
grant, as  to  attract  public  attention  for  a  time.  Its 
consummation  was  prevented  by  the  threat  of  court 
proceedings,  which,  at  once,  led  to  the  insertion  of 
an  advertisement  for  bids.  But  here  again  fraud 
was  attempted.  The  specifications  were  so  drawn 
as  to  call  for  boats  of  certain  dimensions,  exact 
compliance  with  which  was  almost  impossible,  ex- 
cept to  one  towing  company  to  which  originally 
the  contract  was  about  to  be  let  without  a  bid. 
This  company's  bid  was  $13,000;  the  lowest  bid 
was  $3,500.  Still  the  city  authorities  hesitated 
to   award   the   contract   to   the    lowest    bidder,    but 


1 68  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

public  opinion,  and  the  known  ability  of  the  bid- 
der to  fulfill  his  contract  regardless  of  his  boats' 
dimensions,  compelled  the  letting  to  him,  thereby 
saving  to  the  city  the  sum  of  $9,000.  Vouchers 
about  which  there  was  a  doubt  as  to  their  legality, 
have  been  paid  to  a  contractor,  who  was  appointed 
a  brigadier  general  of  volunteers,  but  who  resigned 
the  appointment  immediately,  it  is  said,  for  busi- 
ness reasons,  or  because  he  could  not  be  assigned 
to  a  pleasing  command.  These  vouchers  amounted 
to  $50,000,  and  their  payment,  it  is  rather  unchar- 
itably said,  induced  the  gallant  contractor  to  be- 
come an  independent  voter.  There  is  no  differ- 
ence between  the  manufacture  of  an  independent 
voter  in  this  manner,  and  his  manufacture  by  put- 
ting him  on  the  pay-roll  without  work.  This  method 
seems  to  have  been  adopted  by  the  public  works 
department  of  the  city  government,  following,  per- 
haps, an  old  precedent. 

The  purchase  of  water  meters,  under  specifi- 
cations with  which  only  one  company  could  com- 
ply, and  the  laying  of  water  pipes  without  letting 
contracts    in   a   lawful   manner,    are    notorious    in- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  169 

stances  of  unblushing  frauds  committed  by  this 
department.  It  is  almost  incredible  that  a  dynamo 
should  be  bought  in  parts,  so  that  it  could  be  pur- 
chased from  a  friend,  and  paid  for  in  sums  less 
than  $500;  yet  this  was  done.  Thus  a  piece  of 
machinery  having  a  fixed  price  as  a  whole,  was  not 
only  purchased  illegally,  but  paid  for  in  such  a 
manner  that  its  price,  as  a  whole,  was  doubled 
when  bought  in  pieces.  So  it  was  with  other  elec- 
trical apparatus;  so  it  was  with  the  protection  to 
fire  hydrants.  Instead  of  advertising  for  bids  for 
the  work  of  shielding  the  fire  hydrants  from  the 
severity  of  the  winter's  cold,  they  were  divided  up 
into  companies  like  those  of  a  regiment  of  sol- 
diers, each  having  its  contract  commander,  who 
received  his  pay  on  vouchers  each  calling  for  less 
thati  $500.  The  present  commissioner  is  an  old 
politician,  who  has  held  several  oiificial  positions. 
It  is  but  just  to  say  of  him,  that,  with  the  general 
public,  he  bears  a  good  reputation.  His  political 
enemies  are  not  by  any  means  complimentary  in 
their  allusions  to  him,  those  particularly  in  the 
ranks   of  his   own   party.       He    is    energetic,    self 


lyo  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

confident,  amiable,  and  a  particularly  able  bluffer 
when  occasion  demands  it.  Without  being  pro- 
found he  is  efficient,  and  without  being  remarkably 
efficient,  he  is  not  at  all  valueless. 

The  Civil  Service  Commission  has  reached  its 
present  age,  nearly  five  years,  after  suffering  all 
the  diseases  incident  to  poor  nursing.  It  is  not  by 
any  means  a  vigorous  child  as  yet,  but  as  it  gains 
in  strength  it  will  perhaps  grow  in  wisdom.  When  it 
recognizes  the  fact  that  the  people  permitted  it  to  be 
born,  it  will  also  recognize  the  further  fact  that  its 
parents  require  of  it  obedience  to  their  wishes. 
They  demand  the  enforcement  of  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice Law  as  it  is  written,  for  the  public  good 
and  not  for  partisan  advantage.  They  would  im- 
press upon  the  commission  the  conviction  of  their 
belief  that  without  a  properly  administered  civil 
service  law,  municipal  government  is  a  menace  to 
republican  institutions;  that  without  it  the  experi- 
ment of  municipal  ownership  of  "public  utilities"  is 
hazardous,  and  that  the  increasing  intelligence  of 
the  people  and  their  wider  knowledge  of  the  science 
of  government  have  taught   them   that  the  political 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  171 

maxim,  "to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils,"  is  a 
relic  of  the  barbaric  days  of  politics,  in  which 
wide  open  primaries,  stuffed  ballot  boxes,  captured 
polling  places,  and  thugs  were  the  governing  ele- 
ments   of    elections. 

The  civil  service  law  was  placed  upon  the 
statute  book  at  the  instance  of  those  who  had 
made  the  study  of  municipal  government  a  duty, 
and  who  from  that  study  realized  that  the  growth 
of  great  cities,  in  population,  material  wealth  and 
industrial  development,  demands  commensurate 
changes  in  the  manner  of  governing  such  com- 
munities. The  basic  principle  of  the  law  is  the 
elimination  of  the  spoils  system,  and  the  substi- 
tution of  the  merit  system.  The  banishment  of 
the  professional  politician,  that  individual  who  lives 
upon  the  spoils  of  office,  is  a  result  certain  of 
accomplishment  under  the  proper  administration  of 
this  beneficent  statujle.  Foreseeing  this  result,  the 
professionals  in  all  parties  united  against  it 
and  have  sought,  and  are  still  seeking,  to 
undermine  its  provisions  and  destroy  its  utility. 

The   law    was    put    into    operation    by    a    board 


172  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

of  commissioners  not  one  of  whom  had  ever  been 
an  active  party  man.  No  body  of  men  ever  met 
for  the  performance  of  a  public  duty,  who  were 
less  tainted  with  partisanship  than  were  these  gen- 
tlemen. They  studied  the  law  carefully,  and  ac- 
quainted themselves  with  its  text  and  its  spirit. 
Their  selection  was  satisfactory  to  the  public,  and 
was  a  guarantee  of  honest  endeavor  to  place  the 
affairs  of  the  city  under  the  control  of  the  law's 
terms,  in  all  the  departments  to  which  those  terms 
applied,  and  which  could  be  brought  within  the 
classified  service.  They  formulated  adequate  rules, 
after  consultation  with  able  men  familiar  with  the 
workings  of  the  federal  civil  service  law.  Open 
to  criticism  as  some  of  these  rules  were  as  being 
more  theoretical  than  practical,  nevertheless  they 
were  built  upon  the  basis  of  selection  by  merit 
alone,  regardless  of  politics,  and  were  adapted 
solely  to  that  end.  For  two  years  it  adhered  to 
the  law,  enforcing  against  the  party  to  which  the 
majority  of  the  commissioners  belonged  a  rule 
which  required  that  no  person  holding  an  office 
which    fell    within   the   classified    service    could    take 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  173 

an  examination  for  that  position  without  resigning 
the  position.  The  law  continued  to  work  during 
1895  and  1896  as  smoothly  as  new  machinery  can. 
In  the  Spring  of  1897  a  new  city  administration 
came  into  power  of  a  different  political  com- 
plexion from  that  under  which  the  law  was  placed 
in  force.  It  was  then  found,  to  the  amazement 
of  the  public,  which,  however,  in  the  hurly-burly 
of  life  soon  subsided,  that  these  commissioners  were 
incompetent.  One  placed  his  resignation  in  the 
hands  of  the  Mayor  and  was  almost  immediately 
appointed  to  the  office  of  comptroller  by  that  officer. 
The  efficiency  of  his  service  in  his  new  office,  and 
the  quality  of  his  character,  have  already  been 
referred   to   in   these   pages. 

Suddenly  the  same  Mayor  addressed  the  late 
associates  of  the  Comptroller  as  follows,  viz. :  "You 
will  please  take  notice  that  I  have  elected  to,  and 
I  do  hereby  remove  you  from  the  position  of 
Civil  Service  Commissioner  in  and  for  the  City 
of  Chicago  for  the  following  causes.  First :  You 
are  and  have  been  in  your  performance  of  the 
duties    of    said    office    incompetent.     Secondly:     In 


174  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  performance  of  said  duties  you  have  been 
guilty  of  neglect  of  duty."  A  new  commission 
was  appointed,  which  proceeded  to  reverse  the 
rule  above  referred  to,  whereupon  nearly  all  the 
employes  of  the  city  were  discharged.  No  ex- 
aminations having  been  held  for  these  positions 
there  was  no  eligible  list  from  which  to  select 
their  successors.  Consequently,  in  such  a  case, 
appointments  were  made  under  a  section  of  the 
statute  to  fill  the  vacancies  for  sixty  days,  during 
which  time  examinations  were  held  to  obtain  an 
eligible  list.  These  appointments  were,  of  course, 
all  made  from  the  Mayor's  party.  He  could  not 
do  otherwise  in  view  of  the  public  utterances  he 
had  made  during  his  campaign,  when  he  said  if 
he  retained  any  employes  appointed  under  a  prior 
administration  of  a  different  political  belief,  "it 
will  only  be   for   menagerie   purposes." 

When  the  examinations  were  held  and  a  list 
certified,  it  was  found  that  in  every  instance  the 
sixty  day  men  passed  at  its  head.  Such  a  uni- 
formity of  results  was  in  itself  evidence  of  a  dis- 
regard of   the  law.     From   the  highest   position   for 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  175 

which  examinations  were  held,  down  through  all 
grades,  to  the  lowest,  such  as  barn  men,  the  sixty 
day  man  was  always  marked  up  to  the  head  of  the 
list. 

During  the  years  1897  and  1898,  no  less  than 
seven  different  persons  were  selected  as  civil  ser- 
vice commissioners,  until  a  board  was  found 
willing  to  act  upon  the  Mayor's  interpretation  of 
the  statute.  One  instance  of  the  abuse  of  the  law 
will  suffice  to  show  the  methods  resorted  to,  for 
the  purpose  of  selecting  a  party  man  to  fill  a 
vacancy  in  office.  An  examination  was  held 
of  applicants  for  the  position  of  "foreman  of 
street  lamps  repairs."  The  man  who  passed  at 
the  head  was  a  sixty  day  man.  At  thirteen 
years  of  age  he  became  a  sheet  metal  worker's 
apprentice,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  short 
period  when  he  was  engaged  in  keeping  a  saloon 
and  made  a  failure  of  it,  he  continued  to  follow 
that  occupation.  He  is  a  heeler  for  one  of  the 
most  notorious  of  the  aldermanic  gang.  It  will 
be  observed  in  contrasting  the  questions  asked  him, 
and  those  asked   his   superior,   an  applicant   for   the 


176  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

office  of  Superintendent  of  Street  Lamp  Repairs, 
that  a  lower  degree  of  educational  qualifications 
is  required  of  the  Superintendent,  that  of  his  sub- 
ordinate, the  foreman  of  the  gang  of  repairers. 
These  questions  were  propounded  to  the  foreman, 
viz. : 

"If  the  hypothenuse  of  a  right  angle  triangle 
is  35  feet  and  the  base  21  feet,  what  is  the 
altitude  ? 

At  30  cents  a  square  yard  what  is  the  cost  of 
lining  with   metal   a  cubical   room   13   feet  long? 

If  it  takes  eight  men  five  and  one  half  days 
to  make  100  lamps,  how  long  will  it  take  six  men 
to  make  350   lamps? 

A  building  is  302  feet  high ;  the  walk  and 
court  measure  90  feet ;  what  is  the  length  of  a 
straight  line  running  from  the  top  of  the  building 
to  the  opposite   curb? 

At  25  cents  a  square  yard  what  is  the  cost  of 
a  sheet  of  iron  sufficient  for  the  construction  of  a 
cylinder  pipe  closed  at  both  ends  28  feet  long, 
the  diameter  of   whose   base   is   28   inches? 

What  is  the  capacity  in  gallons  of  a  sphere  15 
inches    in    diameter? 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  177 

If  24  gallons  of  water  flow  through  a  2  inch 
pipe  each  minute'  how  many  gallons  will  flow 
through  a   3    inch   pipe   under   the    same   conditions? 

What  is  the  length  of  the  diameter  of  a  circle 
whose    area    equals    1.386    square    yards? 

Name  the  materials  used  in  the  construction  of 
a  street   lamp? 

Name  three  essential  qualifications  requisite  for 
a   foreman  ?" 

A  street  lamp  could  not  be  repaired,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  by  a  person  unable  to  answer  these 
questions !  This  truth  must  be  apparent  to  any 
unbiased   mind ! 

All  the  other  applicants  could  answer  the  last 
two  questions  only,  simply  because  they  were  hon- 
est ;  but  the  metal  worker  answered  them  all,  and 
was  marked  100,  although  he  had  not  been  at 
school  since  he  was  thirteen  years  of  age,  and 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  much  of  a  student 
since  that   time. 

The  Superintendent's  examination  ran  as  fol- 
lows, viz. : 

"What  are  the  duties  of  Superintendent  of 
Lamp    Repairs? 


178  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

What  experience  have  you  had  to  qualify  you 
for   this  position? 

How  many  lamps  should  a  tinner  complete  in 
a  day? 

How  many  signs  should  an  etcher  complete  in 
a   day? 

If  a  special  assessment  were  levied  and  con- 
firmed, what  would  your  duty  be  to  secure  the 
erecting  and   lighting   of   the   lamps? 

On  what  part  of  the  city  property  should  those 
posts   be    set? 

If  posts  were  to  be  erected  how  would  you 
determine   what   class   of   posts   would  be   required? 

What  is  the  general  duty  of  Superintendent  of 
Lamp  Repairs   regarding   repairs   to  lamps?" 

The  attacks  on  the  civil  service  law  come  from 
all  sources.  A  party  convention  in  1898,  in  its 
platform  said,  "We  pronounce  the  Civil  Service 
Law  inefficient,  mischievous  and  hostile  to  the 
regnant  principles  of  popular  government.  We  de- 
mand   its     repeal." 

The  next  convention  of  the  same  party  re- 
solved :    "We    pledge  the  party    to    the    strict 

enforcement    of    this,    the    Civil    Service    Law." 


Chicago,  Satx\n's  Sanctum.  179 

The  Mayor's  consistency  and  that  of  his  party 
are  identical.  If  the  two  removed  commissioners 
were  incompetent  and  neglectful,  so  must  the  third 
have  been,  and  yet  that  equally  incompetent  and 
neglectful  commissioner  was  appointed  to  an  office, 
the   very    highest    in    the    gift    of    the    Mayor. 

Acting  upon  the  demand  of  his  party  for  the 
repeal  of  this  law,  the  Corporation  Counsel  began 
his  attacks  upon  it  by  a  multiplicity  of  opinions 
calculated  to  gradually  remove  it  from  the  statute 
book.  Ordinances  were  passed  in  accordance  with 
these  opinions,  creating  new  heads  of  departments 
and  exempting  them  from  the  civil  service  rules. 
Positions,  filled  by  civil  service  appointees,  were 
abolished.  The  same  positions  were  re-created 
under  a  new  name,  filled  by  a  sixty  day  man  who 
was  then  examined,  and  certified  to  the  head  of 
the  list.  The  police  department,  the  city  treasurer, 
and  other  branches  of  the  local  government  which 
have  attempted  by  judicial  proceedings  to  emas- 
culate the  civil  service  law,  have  in  every  instance 
been  foiled  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

The    Special    Assessment    Bureau    of    the    board 


i8o  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

of  public  works,  has  for  many  years,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  alderman,  had  the  origination  and 
passage  of  ordinances  for  paving  streets,  laying 
sewers,  sidewalks,  drains,  water  supply  and  service 
pipes,  etc.  Under  a  law  recently  enacted,  and  now 
in  force,  all  ordinances  originate  with  a  board, 
named  the  Board  of  Local  Improvements.  The 
right  of  petition  on  behalf  of  the  property  owners, 
is  a  feature  of  the  new  law  which  smiles  at  the 
property  owner,  while  it  "winks  the  other  eye." 
It  holds  out  a  hope,  as  do  other  provisions  of  the 
law,  of  reduced  assessments,  but,  so  far,  the  prac- 
tical benefit  to  the  owner  of  real  estate  has  not 
been  made  apparent.  Since  the  year  1861  and  in- 
cluding the  year  1897,  the  enormous  sum  of 
$90,402,790.44  has  been  levied  upon  real  estate  for 
the  payment  of  public  improvements.  During  the 
year  ending  December,  1891,  the  amount  levied 
was  over  six  millions  of  dollars,  and  during  the 
following  year  ending  December  31,  1892,  just 
preceding  the  World's  Fair,  the  assessments 
reached  the  sum  of  over  fourteen  millions  of 
dollars.     Reference     has     alreadv     been     made     to 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  i8r 

frauds  in  the  letting  of  contracts  for  street  im- 
provements. They  are  spht  up  and  let  to  favor- 
ites without  advertising,  so  that  each  payment  will 
fall  under  $500,  although  the  improvement  may 
be  a  mile  in  length.  The  asphalt  ring  is  just  as 
potent  as  ever.  It  fights  every  effort  of  other 
dealers  in  asphalt  to  procure  a  contract  and  it 
generally  succeeds  in  foisting  upon  the  people  its 
quality  of  asphalt  at  a  higher  price  than  that 
offered  at  a  lower  price,  by  other  bidders,  perhaps 
equally  as  good  in  quality  and  which  has  been 
successfully  used  in  other  cities.  Failing  recently 
to  stampede  the  board,  the  ring  accepted  contracts 
at  a  figure  submitted  by  its  competitors.  This, 
however,  is  a  familiar  trick  of  trusts,  and  will 
last  for  a  very  short  period  of  time,  unless  the 
board  manifests  a  disposition  to  consider  the  merits 
of  the  material  of  competing  contractors.  The 
ring  will  not  abandon  its  struggle  so  easily.  It 
is  powerful,  uniting  in  its  behalf  the  combined 
efforts  of  politicians  of  all  parties,  who  are  con- 
nected with  the  asphalt  corporations  as  stockholders 
and    officers.     The    Board    of    Local    Improvements 


i82  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

not  long  since  made  the  announcement  that  it  was 
preparing  to  levy  special  assessments  during  the 
coming  year  to  the  amount  of  $10,000,000.  The 
people  may  weep  and  protest,  while  the  contractor 
smiles  and   urges. 

The  one  department  of  the  city  government, 
unsurpassed  by  any  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  is 
the  Fire  Department.  The  officers  and  men  are  of 
the  best  material,  of  the  highest  courage,  and  serve 
under  the  strictest  discipline.  They  are  fire  fight- 
ers, not  politicians.  Their  chief  is  a  man  of 
independence  of  character,  honest,  taciturn,  a  strict 
disciplinarian — a  general  in  command  of  a  corps 
of  which  he  is  justly  proud.  He  tolerates  no 
political  interference  with  his  men.  In  this  respect, 
particularly,  he  is,  always  was,  and  always  will 
be  sustained  by  the  entire  community.  Any  at- 
tempted management  of  the  department  which 
would  tend  to  lessen  its  efficiency  meets  with  the 
chief's  stern  resistance.  Aside  from  his  own  moral 
and  physical  courage,  his  admirable  sense  of  duty, 
and  the  fact  that  the  public  honor  him  and  sup- 
port  him,    he    has    the    powerful  assistance    of    the 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  183 

board  of  underwriters  in  any  case  of  damaging 
intermeddling  with  his  command.  Knowing  his 
worth  and  the  merits  of  his  department  that  inter- 
meddhng  would  bring,  instantly,  a  threat  of  the 
rise  in  insurance  rates  from  this  board,  a  threat 
which  would  touch  the  pockets  of  many  property 
owners,  and  consequently  one  which  would  solidify 
them  in  support  of  the  chief.  He  shares  with 
his  men  the  dangers  of  their  calling.  The  gallant 
men,  who  during  the  past  year  lost  their  lives  in 
saving  the  property  and  lives  of  others,  testified 
by  their  sacrifice  to  the  hazardous  nature  of  that 
calling.  A  recital  of  the  heroic  deeds  of  those 
men  would  not  be  surpassed  by  the  stories  of 
gallantry  in  the  field  of  battle  with  which  the 
pages  of  American  history  are  replete.  While 
Dennis  J.  Swenie's  strength  holds  out  he  will  com- 
mand his  famous  batallions  to  his  own  honor,  and 
to  that  of  the  city  of  which  he  is  so  faithful  and 
loyal  a  citizen. 

Even  the  possibility  of  his  being  supplanted  in 
his  command,  which  appeared  recently  in  the  failure 
to  reappoint   him   at  the   first   opportunity   afforded 


i84  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  ]\Iayor,  aroused  the  people  to  a  united  protest, 
which,  indications  prove,  was  timely  and  effective. 
The  omission  to  send  his  name  to  the  council  with 
the  first  of  the  Mayor's  appointees,  may  have 
been,  as  it  was  claimed-  "accidental,"  but  it  is 
nevertheless  the  belief  that  that  omission  was  in 
the  nature  of  a  test  of  public  opinion.  If  so,  the 
power  of  public  opinion  retained  him  in  command, 
despite    political    purpose    to    the    contrary. 

With  the  exception  of  this  department  all  the 
others  of  the  city  are  merely  run  on  political  lines, 
as  adjuncts  of  the  political  party  in  power,  not- 
withstanding the  civil  service  law.  The  abuses  of 
that  law  may  become  fewer  in  number,  not 
through  any  merit  of  the  present  board,  but  be- 
cause it  has  about  exhausted  itself  in  filling  all 
the  offices  with  men  of  one  political  faith  by 
means  already    explained. 

The  departments  of  the  County  government 
under  a  feeble  civil  service  law,  different  from  that 
applicable  to  the  city,  are  conducted  in  the  same 
manner  as  those  of  the  city  for  the  benefit  of 
machine    politicians    and    their    regiments    of    ward 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  185 

and  township  workers.  Tlicy  arc  as  corruptly 
managed  as   those  of  the   city   government. 

The  institutions  at  Dunning  for  the  insane  and 
the  poor,  are  generally  managed  by  ward  pol- 
ticians,  whose  appointments  are  in  the  nature  of 
a  reward  for  party  services,  or  rather,  services  to 
some  particular  boss.  Recent  reports  of  grand 
juries  note  some  improvement  in  their  conduct. 
On  the  whole,  however,  they  are  regarded  in  the 
nature  of  spoils  by  the  ring  of  party  loafers, 
whose  views  of  government  consist,  mainly,  in 
doing  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  of 
the   ring. 

The  traffic  in  dead  bodies,  or  "cadavers"  goes 
on,  as  it  did  when  exposure  came  about  a  year 
ago  through  detected  shipments  to  the  State  of 
Missouri  for  the  use  of  a  medical  college  in  one 
of  the  towns  of  that  state.  These  pauper  dead 
"escape,"  in  the  language  of  the  employes,  from 
the  "killer"  ward  in  which  they  are  stored,  a  place 
selected  to  lay  out  a  corpse  suited  for  the  dissect- 
ing table.  It  has  been  a  matter  of  more  than 
rumor  and   given   currency   by  the   press,   that   sub- 


i86  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum, 

jects  for  the  dissecting  table  are  selected  before 
the  breath  has  left  their  bodies.  This  statement 
finds  more  or  less  verification  in  the  disclosures 
of   the    Missouri    case    before    alluded    to. 

Contractors  for  county  supplies  pay  a  percent- 
age of  their  prices  to  a  county  ring,  and,  conse- 
quently, a  poorer  quality  of  food,  fuel  and  medi- 
cines, is  furnished  to  these  institutions  than  the 
contracts  call  for,  which  cost  the  contractor  an 
additional    sum   by   way   of   boodle   to   obtain   them. 

The  sheriff's  ofifice  has  had  a  standing  shame 
for  many  years  in  the  cost  of  dieting  prisoners. 
The  county  board  allows  the  sheriff  for  dieting, 
twenty-five  cents  a  day  for  each  prisoner  confined 
in  the  county  jail.  The  cost  of  a  day's  dieting  is 
estimated  not  to  exceed  ten  cents,  according  to 
the  greed  of  the  sheriff.  From  this  one  source 
alone  the  sheriff's  office  is  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  lucrative  offices  in  the  county.  The  excess 
above  the  actual  cost  is  clear  profit  to  the  sheriff. 

Some  of  the  bailiffs  of  the  courts  have  been 
discovered  within  the  past  year  as  jury  bribers, 
willing  to  take  any  side  offering  the  most  lucrative 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  187 

terms.  The  principal  in  this  disreputable  business 
fled,  and  now  an  unseemly  quarrel  is  raging  be- 
tween the  city's  detective  department,  and  the  sher- 
iff's and  state  attorney's  office  as  to  which  was  to 
blame  for   that   escape. 

The  judges  of  the  Courts  of  Cook  County  are 
men  of  integrity.  Some  are  able  jurists,  but  of 
late  years  the  standard  for  judicial  qualifications 
has  been,  through  party  machine  nominations,  con- 
siderably lowered.  These  judges  are  charged  by 
the  law  with  some  duties  the  nature  of  which  is 
purely  political.  Thus,  the  selection  of  justices  of 
the  peace  for  the  city,  the  poor  man's  court,  is 
confided  to  them.  No  scandals,  so  far,  have  at- 
tended the  exercise  of  this  duty,  but  their  selec- 
tions have  not,  as  a  general  rule,  earned  the 
confidence  of  the  people.  '"].  P."  means  nowadays 
one  who  will  give  judgment  for  the  plaintiff.  The 
evil  practices,  the  frauds  and  swindles,  which  have 
their  origin  in  the  system  now  prevailing  for  the 
conduct  of  justice  courts,  has  given  rise  to  strenu- 
ous efforts  to  reform  them  by  state  legislation.  This 
will    ultimately    be    accomplished.     While  the  mem- 


i88  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

bers  from  the  rural  districts,  in  each  recurring  state 
legislature,  are  difficult  to  manage,  in  the  one  ses- 
sion of  their  term  in  the  lower  house  in  matters  af- 
fecting a  large  city,  nevertheless,  when  fully  in- 
formed, they  have  granted  such  remedial  legislation 
to  Chicago  for  which  its  civic  bodies  have  made  timely 
application. 

A  new  revenue  law  has  just  gone  into  opera- 
tion, designed  to  abolish  the  inequalities  of  taxation 
which  grew  up  and  were  fraudulently  fostered  un- 
der the  repealed  law.  What  its  effect  will  be  it 
is  difficult  to  predict.  The  personal  property  hold- 
ers, those  with  long  lines  of  stocks,  bonds,  valu- 
able house  furnishings,  large  bank  accounts,  and 
concealed  wealth,  are  very  likely  to  feel  unkindly 
towards  the  stringent  provisions  of  this  law.  They 
have  been  evading  their  just  share  of  taxation  for 
years.  They  are  today  the  most  ignorant  of  the 
many  people  calling  at  the  assessor's  office  to  make 
out  and  verify  under  oath  their  respective  sched- 
ules, simply  because  it  is  so  many  years  since  they 
were  called  upon  to  pay  a  personal  property  tax, 
that  they  have  forgotten  all  about  the  form. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  i8q 

The  holders  of  large  real  estate  interests,  who, 
for  years,  have  been  paying  assessors  to  exempt 
them  from  assessment,  or  reduce  their  valuations, 
are,  also,  most  probably  confronted  with  the  im- 
possibility of  escape  from  paying  their  proper  share 
of  general  taxes.  This  iniquitous  system  has  been 
denounced  in  the  press  for  years.  A  year  ago 
a  town  assessor  was  convicted  of  the  offense,  and 
heavily  fined  by  the  court.  The  tax  evaders  are 
as  vicious  a  class  in  a  community  as  are  sneak 
thieves.  Their  payment  to  assessors  to  low^er  their 
valuations  is  the  worst  species  of  corruption.  The 
payrolls  of  the  town  assessors  present  the  most 
consipcuous  instances  of  corruption  to  be  found  in 
any  department  of  the  county,  or  city,  govern- 
ment. Many  men  are  carried  on  their  pay  rolls 
and  paid  from  five  to  ten  dollars  per  day  who 
never  do  one  moment's  work  in  the  making  of  the 
assessment.  They  are  simply  being  nursed  for 
political  purposes.  In  one  of  the  wealthiest  towns 
a  payroll  fell  under  the  writer's  observation,  which 
showed  a  clear  steal  of  $2,200  for  a  period  of  tw^o 
weeks    only.     These    officials    designated    a    personal 


igo  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

friend  to  whom  all  money  was  paid.  One-fourth 
of  these  payments  were  handed  over  to  the  "solic- 
itor" who  brought  in  the  "business,"  one-fourth  to 
the  "friend,"  and  the  remaining  one-half  '  went  to 
the  assessor.  Men  in  high  station  in  national  and 
state  councils,  state  and  national  committeemen,  city 
and  county  officers,  lawyers,  politicians  and  sport- 
ing men  were  engaged  in  this  business  of  boodling, 
throwing  upon  the  owners  of  small  real  estate  in- 
terests more  than  their  fair  share  of  the  burdens 
of  taxation.  In  an  address  delivered  in  this  city 
by  an  ex-President  of  the  United  States,  he  said 
that  as  Lincoln  had  declared  this  country  could 
not  exist  half  slave  and  half  free,  so  he  declared 
"it  could  not  exist  half  taxed  and  half  free"  from 
taxation,  that  the  sin  of  tax  evasion  was  a  new 
danger  to  the  integrity  of  the  Republic  and  that  its 
evil  lay  in  the  "evasion  of  Just  taxation  by  the 
rich,  and  the  consequent  thrusting  of  an  extra 
burden  on  the  poor."  The  corporations  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  gas,  in  the  management 
of  traction  companies,  of  live  stock  exchanges,  of 
packing  companies,  railroads,  steel  companies,  sleep- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  191 

ing  car  builders  and  merchants  owning  large 
landed  properties,  have  had  their  agents  regularly 
employed  in  procuring  a  reduction  of  their  valua- 
tions for  assessment,  who  were  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  bribers.  Whether  these  crimes  will  be 
as  freely  attempted  under  the  new  law  remains 
to  be  developed,  but  some  of  the  distributors  of 
personal  property  schedules  are  again  playing  their 
old  trick  of  taking  money  from  the  poor  under 
promise  of  returning  them  as  non-holders  of  tax- 
able personal  property.  An  arrest  of  one  of  these. 
robbers,  who  had  accepted  one  dollar  from  each 
of  a  number  of  women  has  been  made.  The 
men  elected  as  assessors  and  as  members  of  the 
board  of  review  are  men  of  good  character  and 
able  judgment.  The  only  indication  of  danger  is 
that  a  political  boss  who  has  lived  and  thrived  at 
the  public  crib  and  whose  political  methods  have 
always  been  unscrupulous  has  been  appointed  chief 
clerk  of  the  board  of  review.  His  salary  is  large 
enough  to  keep  him  out  of  temptation,  if  he  has 
not  forgotten  the  ways  of  the  righteous.  He  was 
an   expert    "adjuster"    in    politics.       In    assessments 


192  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  "adjuster's"  occupation  should  now  be  gone. 
The  difficulty  lies  in  teaching  an  old  adjuster  new 
tricks.  The  old  system  of  assessment  for  general 
taxation  was  denounced  by  an  official  of  the  county 
as  "nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  gigantic  legal- 
ized swindle,  reeking  in  corruption,  a  harbor  for 
'grafters,'  'petty  thieves,'  and'  sharks,'  and  an 
enormous,  unnecessary  and  galling  burden  on  the 
tax  payers,  the  expense  of  which  has  no  justifica- 
tion in  reason  and  should  have  none  in  law." 

The  new  system  abolishes  but  one  of  the  evils 
of  the  old.  In  place  of  town  assessors,  a  board 
of  five  assessors  is  established  whose  work  is  sub- 
ject to  review  by  another  composed  of  three  mem- 
bers. Their  labors  are,  in  turn,  passed  upon  by  the 
State  Board  of  Equalization,  before  which  for 
years  railroads  and  other  corporations  have  had 
their  adjusters,  agents  or  brokers,  and  before  which 
they  will  continue  to  appear  and  accomplish,  as 
they  always  have  accomplished,  the  placing  of  the 
lowest  possible  valuations  upon  railroad  proper- 
ties, and  a  reduction  of  capital  stock  valuations. 
The  board  of  assessors  now  values  all  the  real  estate 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum,  193 

in  Cook  county  in  place  of  the  assessors  in  the  sep- 
arate towns  within  the  county. 

These  towns,  six  of  which  are  wholly  within 
the  city  limits,  are,  through  their  officials,  plun- 
derers of  the  public,  robbing  the  funds  of  the 
towns  by  increasing  their  salaries  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  services  they  are  required  to  render, 
and  which  could  well  be  dispensed  with  to  the 
greatest  advantage  of  the  people.  In  the  year  1898 
they  cost  the  treasury  $395,411.55.  Absolutely  noth- 
ing is  apparent  as  the  result  of  this  looting  of  pub- 
lic funds.  They  occupy,  in  the  business  parts  of 
the  city,  expensive  offices,  which  are  open  for  pub- 
lic use  not  to  exceed  four  months  in  the  year, 
and  afford,  for  the  remaining  months,  club  accom- 
modations for  the  hangers  on  of  the  political 
crooks  who  manage  party  affairs.  Card  playing 
and  gambling  are  their  principal  occupations.  In 
the  division  of  the  proceeds  of  the  robbery,  the 
justices  of  the  peace  participate.  They  are,  by  vir- 
tue of  their  offices,  members  of  the  town  board. 
Their  services  are  not  worth  ten  dollars  per  annum, 
but  they  receive  compensation  ranging  from  _  $200 
to  $500  per  annum. 


194  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

As  illustrating  the  tendency  of  these  town  boards, 
from  which  the  assessment  of  property  for  tax- 
ation has  now  been  taken  away,  the  following  are 
the  valuations  of  real  estate  and  personal  prop- 
erty for  the  past  three  years  as  equalized  by  the 
state  board.  The  foundation  for  the  assessments 
was  laid  by  the  town  assessors.  It  will  be  observed 
that,  notwithstanding  the  increase  in  population,  the 
value  of  real  estate  and  personal  property  has  been 
steadily  declining.  The  decline  is  a  measure  of  the 
boodling  propensities  of  the  assessors.  Their  per- 
centage of  award  "no  fellah  can  find  out." 

VALUATIONS  FOR  ASSESSMENT.' 
1896.  1897.  1898. 
Real  estate.  ..$195,684,875  $184,632,905  $178,801,172 
Personal  prop- 
erty     34-959.299       33.594-167       29,601,393 

Population, 

school  census       1,616,635     1,851,588 

The  value  of  the  taxable  real  estate  in  Chicago, 
according  to  these  figures,  decreased  in  two  years 
$18,883,703,  and  the  value  of  taxable  personal  prop- 
erty $5,357,906.      During  the  same  period  the  pop- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  195 

Illation  increased  234,953.  As  wealth  and  popula- 
tion increase  in  Chicago,  values  of  property  de- 
cline. At  ten  per  cent  of  its  cash  value,  which  is 
the  basis  adopted  by  assessors  for  years  for  taxa- 
tion value,  taxable  real  estate  in  Chicago  is,  in 
round  numbers  worth  $1,788,000,000. 

It  is  impossible  to  average  the  per  cent  paid  for 
reductions  in  valuations  to  the  assessors.  Of  the 
eighteen  millions  in  reduced  valuations  in  1898, 
as  compared  with  1896,  it  is  safe  to  say  five  mil- 
lions were  purchased.  As  the  rate  of  taxation  was 
between  nine  and  ten  dollars  on  one  hundred  dol- 
lars the  amount  of  taxes  paid  by  those  who  should 
not  have  paid  them  was  $500,000.  The  assessors 
were  "not  working  for  their  health,"  but  for  about 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  taxes  saved  to  their  princi- 
pals, with  the  aid  of  the  friend  and  the  agent 
who  brought  the  business,  or  say  about  $250,000  of 
"graft." 

The  coroner's  ofiice  is  also  one  which  not  in- 
frequently gives  rise  to  scandals.  There  are  open 
charges  made  that  some  of  the  juries,  called  by 
that    official,    have     found     exonerating,     instead    of 


196  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

incriminating,  verdicts  for  a  money  consideration  in 
the  division  of  which  the  office  participated.  An 
unseemly  quarrel  between  the  coroner  and  the 
police  revealed  the  fact  that  both  have  favorite 
undertakers  to  whom  the  bodies  of  those  meeting 
sudden  death  from  accident,  or  otherwise,  are 
taken.  In  a  dispute  as  to  which  should  control 
a  corpse  a  most  painful  truth  became  public  that 
it  was  carted  about  from  one  undertaking  estab- 
lishment to  another,  and  that  even  the  law  was 
invoked  to  obtain  possession  of  it  by  means  of  a  writ 
of  replevin. 

The  office  of  the  recorder  of  deeds  is  one  of  the 
most  important  in  the  county  aflfairs.  Generally 
speaking  it  is  well  conducted,  although  its  records 
are  not  as  presentable  to  the  eye  as  are  the 
books  of  a  first-class  mercantile  firm.  Female 
labor  is  employed  mostly  in  recording,  i.  e.,  spread- 
ing an  instrument  at  large  upon  the  records,  while 
male  labor  keeps  up  the  tract  books,  indices,  etc. 
The  employes  of  both  sexes  are  favorites  of  po- 
litical bosses.  The  abstract  branch  of  the  business 
of    this    office    is    a    sublime    failure     For    years    it 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  197 

has  cost  the  county  a  large  sum  of  money  to  make 
good  the  deficiency — expenses  largely  exceeding  earn- 
ings. Its  abstracts  cannot  compete  with  those  of 
private  corporations,  which  employ  experts  in  that 
business,  and  pay  them  in  proportion  to  their 
ability,  merit  alone  being  their  recommendation. 
The  abstract  makers  employed  by  the  county  are 
shiftless  and  incompetent.  The  Torrens  system,  or 
the  registration  of  titles,  will,  in  time,  but  not  for 
many  years  to  come,  supersede  the  abstract  system, 
but  not  until  the  public  shall  have  gained  more 
confidence  in  its  merits  than  it  has  yet  acquired  in 
recorder's  abstracts  of  title. 

It  was  not  the  purpose  of  these  pages  to  pursue 
inquiry  into  the  corruption  existing  in  both  the  mu- 
nicipal and  county  governments.  The  primary  in- 
tent was  to  refer  to  the  vices  and  crimes  which 
prevail  by  reason  principally  of  police  partnership 
in  their  joint  proceeds.  Both  governments  are  cor- 
rupt, and  appear  to  be  so  because  the  people  con- 
sent they  shall  be  corrupt.  The  lessons  the  pub- 
lic learn  from  day  to  day,  through  the  columns 
of    the    press,    are  forgotten.     When     election     day 


igS  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

approaches  a  revival  of  the  facts  through  the 
press  is  then  charged  to  pohtical  trickery,  and  its 
charges  of  maladministration  are  disregarded  as 
being  invented  for  party  purposes.  The  press 
condemns  while  the  evils  are  prominent,  then  it 
condones,  and  becomes  the  subservient  and  trucu- 
lent supporter  of  the  men  who  permitted  vice  and 
debauchery  to  attain  its  stalwart  growth.  The 
people  believe  there  is  a  trust  press,  banded  to- 
gether to  obtain  favors  through  school  leases,  bank 
deposits  of  public  funds  and  personal  appoint- 
ments in  return  for  services  to  be  rendered  their 
municipal  benefactors.  The  only  non-member  of 
the  trust  is  the  organ  of  the  street  car  corpora- 
tions and  such  exposes  of  villainy  as  it  may  pre- 
sent are  set  down  as  means  to  an  end — the  effort 
to  obtain  public  privileges  without  compensation  to 
the  city.  Newspapers,  therefore,  in  municipal  af- 
fairs no  longer  lead  public  opinion.  They  cannot 
again  become  its  leaders  until  they  free  themselves 
from  the  suspicion  of  conserving  their  own  inter- 
ests by  the  sacrifice  of  those  of  the  public.  The 
greatest  of  them  delivered  but   feeble  blows  during 


Chicago,   Satan's  Sanctum.  199 

the  recent  mayoralty  campaign,  while  the  lighter 
weights,  who  were  fighting  for  a  candidate  for  re- 
newed honors,  had  been  for  two  years  most  un- 
mercifully pounding  him  for  his  persistent  assist- 
ance rendered  to  the  vicious  classes,  in  their  indul- 
gence in  crime  and  debauchery. 

The  various  civic  societies  formed  for  the  im- 
provement of  municipal  government,  pay  attention 
solely  to  matters  removed  from  the  insidious  and 
ceaseless  advances  of  crime,  close  their  eyes  to  evi- 
dences of  disease  apparent  on  the  body  politic,  and 
merely  dream  of  higher  ideals.  They  leave  to  one 
society  the  task  of  the  suppression  of  vice.  They 
give  to  it  neither  sympathy  nor  pecuniary  assist- 
ance. It  begs  its  way  in  meetings  of  its  sympa- 
thizers, warns  the  community  of  the  prevalence  of 
crime  and  indecency,  but  the  community  rushes  on 
in  the  business  struggles  of  the  day  from  year  to 
year,  trusting — as  it  always  has  trusted — in  its  pub- 
lic servants  for  the  full  performance  of  their  sworn 
duties — a  trust  so  constantly  violated  that  munic- 
ipal government  has  become  merely  the  synonym 
pf  the  rule  of  the  criminal  classes. 


200  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

A  special  session  of  the  Illinois  Legislature  was 
called  by  the  Governor  in  1897.  Among  the  sub- 
jects included  in  the  call  was  one  suggesting  the 
passage  of  an  act  "to  establish  boards  providing 
for  non-partisan  police  in  all  cities  of  the  State 
containing  over  100,000  inhabitants."  Pursuant  to 
the  recommendations  of  the  executive's  message,  a 
resolution  was  passed  by  the  Senate  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  committee  of  seven  members  of  that 
body,  which  recited  the  recommendation  of  the 
Governor;  that  a  bill  had  been  introduced  pro- 
viding for  the  establishment  of  non-partisan  police 
boards  in  all  cities  containing  the  necessary  popu- 
lation ;  that  charges  and  scandals  had  arisen  in 
regard  to  the  management  of  the  police  force  in 
Chicago,  and  that  the  committee  be  clothed  "with 
full  power  to  act"  and  to  investigate  "fully  the  sub- 
ject" and  report  its  findings  as  early  as  possible  to 
the  Senate  at  the  special  session. 

The  committee  consisted  of  one  people's  party, 
one  democratic  senator  and  five  republican  sena- 
tors. From  the  moment  of  its  selection  it  was 
branded  as  a  partisan  committee,  appointed  not  so 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  201 

much  to  obtain  information  which  would  enable 
an  unbiased  judgment  to  be  formed  upon  the 
merits  of  the  proposed  bill  as  to  accumulate  po- 
liticaJ  capital  for  the  use  of  the  republican  party. 
The  committee  proceeded  with  its  investigation, 
and  on  February  loth,  1898,  submitted  its  report, 
which  was  adopted  February  15th,  1898,  by  a  vote 
of  thirty-three  republicans  and  one  democrat,  eight 
democrats  voting  in  the  negative.  The  only  dem- 
ocrat voting  in  the  affirmative  was  a  member  of  the 
reporting  committee. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  special  session,  no  legis- 
lation having  been  enacted  on  the  subject  of  the 
proposed  bill,  a  resolution  was  introduced  pro- 
viding for  a  continuance  of  the  committee,  which 
recited  that  it  had  "unearthed  a  most  deplorable 
state  of  affairs  in  the  management  and  control  of 
the  police  force  of  Chicago,"  and  that  "the  most  fla- 
grant violations  of  the  civil  service  law  have  been 
brazenly  practiced  by  those  in  authority  in  control 
of  that  police  force."  Nothing  resulted  from  the 
latter  resolution  continuing  the  committee. 

The    report    covered    the    investigations    of    the 


202  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

committee  into  the  operations  of  the  civil  service 
law,  and  the  manner  of  its  enforcement,  finding 
that  it  was  a  plaything  in  the  hands  of  the  party 
then  in  power,  and  an  object  of  constant  and 
premeditated  attack.  It  also  found  the  grossest 
abuses  in  the  management  of  the  police  pension 
fund  and  in  the  workings  of  the  police  force  as 
an  organization.  That  crime  was  protected  and 
lewdness  tolerated  by  it,  and  that  in  fact  it  was 
a  powerful  ally  of  the  criminal  classes,  and  prac- 
tically made  an  unofficial  livelihood  off  unfortunate 
women  of  the  town,  thieves  and  their  fences,  gam- 
bling resorts  and  their  keepers,  and  the  patrons 
and  keepers  of  the  all  night  saloons.  It  found  the 
Chief  of  Police  was  cognizant  of  the  facts,  and 
yet  took  no  steps  to  correct  them.  That  Chief 
from  whose  testimony  quotations  appear  in  these 
pages,  was  re-appointed  to  command  the  police 
force  for  the  next  two  years. 

The  findings  of  this  committee  made  but  little, 
if  any,  impression  upon  the  public  mind.  There 
were  no  revelations  as  to  the  condition  of  crim- 
inal  affairs,   and  the   relations   of   the  police   there- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  203 

with,  which  were  new  to  the  people,  with  the  pos- 
sible exception,  perhaps,  that  it  was  not  known 
how  utterly  inefficient  and  irresponsible  the  Chief 
of  Police  was.  From  that  moment  every  news- 
paper has,  if  not  demanded,  at  least  suggested  his 
removal  from  office.  In  this  respect  it  but  voices 
the  sentiments  of  the  entire  community.  It  is  a 
paradox  why,  in  the  face  of  this  public  feeling,  a 
majority  of  the  people  supported  for  re-election  the 
staunch  friend  of  the  dishonored  head  of  the  police 
force,  unless  upon  the  hypothesis  that  he  would 
not  continue  to  be  a  part  of  the  new  adminis- 
tration. If  so,  the  hypothesis  soon  failed.  The 
Mayor  thought  he  would  "hold  him  for  a  while." 

The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  failure  of 
this  committee's  report  to  attract  public  attention 
to  the  prevalence  of  criminality  and  obscenity  in 
Chicago  as  fostered  by  the  police  force  is  this, 
that  an  investigation  concerning  the  methods  of 
government  of  a  city  administration  controlled  by 
the  Democratic  party,  without  a  kindred  investiga- 
tion of  the  methods  of  a  county  administration 
controlled  by  the  Republican  party   is   too  partisan 


204  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

to  suit  the  sense  of  fair  play  and  of  justice  enter- 
tained by  every  American  citizen.  It  matters  not 
that  the  order  for  the  investigation  had  reference 
only  to  the  passage  of  legislation  for  the  regula- 
tion of  the  police  force  in  cities  of  a  certain  popu- 
lation, and  that,  therefore,  the  scope  of  the  inquiry 
was  limited  by  the  terms  of  the  order.  Perhaps 
it  was  as  broad  as  it  could  have  been  made,  un- 
der the  governor's  call,  which,  by  the  provisions 
of  the  constitution  fixed  the  subjects  upon  which 
only  legislation  could  be  enacted  in  special  session. 
Either  the  call  should  have  been  broader,  or  this 
particular  subject  matter  should  have  been  omitted 
from  it,  and  left  for  the  regular  session's  con- 
sideration. Then  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  man- 
ner of  conducting  both  city  and  county  affairs 
could  have  been  investigated  free  from  the  delimi- 
tations of  an  executive  call.  Nevertheless,  the  fact 
remains  that  the  report  of  the  Berry  Committee, 
as  it  was  called,  is  a  stinging  indictment  against 
the  police  force  of  Chicago,  which  sooner  or  later 
must  be  tried  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion.  It 
will,    in    a    measure,    have    blazed    the    way    for    a 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  205 

new  committee  of  inquiry,  whose  sittings  have 
just  commenced,  in  so  far  as  the  poHce  depart- 
ment is  concerned. 

The  Baxter  Committee  was  formed  under  a 
resolution  of  the  Senate.  It  consists  of  five  re- 
pubHcan  and  two  democratic  senators.  The  reso- 
kition  refers  "to  the  management  and  control  of 
the  police  affairs"  of  Chicago,  and  "the  conduct  of 
the  municipal  government  thereof,  in  reference  to 
the  expenditure  of  public  money  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law  in  its  several  departments."  This 
language  would  limit  the  scope  of  the  committee's 
inquiry  to  city  affairs  only.  The  resolution,  how- 
ever, closes  with  words  granting  authority  to  the 
committee  for  a  "full,  complete  and  perfect  inves- 
tigation of  any  and  all  the  said  subject  matters 
herein  named,  and  such  other  subjects  as  they  may 
deem  wise  and  prudent  to  investigate  in  the  in- 
terests of  good  government." 

If  this  committee  is  wise  it  will  not  confine 
its  efforts  to  ascertaining  how  the  city  govern- 
ment is  managed.  It  will  command  public  ap- 
proval if  it  will  extend  its  inquiries  into  the  affairs 


2o6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

of  the  county  government  as  well.  This  the  com- 
munity will  demand ;  with  less  it  will  not  be  sat- 
isfied. The  great  mass  of  both  parties  is  con- 
cerned with  what  will  be  of  the  most  advantage 
to  good  government,  not  with  what  will  be  to  the 
greatest  advantage  of  either  party.  Hence,  if  this  in- 
quiry has  in  view  a  partisan  purpose  its  sessions  will 
merely  reproduce  tales  of  the  street  familiar  to  the 
ears  of  the  people,  and  with  which  the  legislature  has 
been  familiar  for  a  decade.  To  associate  these  crimes 
and  debaucheries  with  one  administration  will  in 
one  respect  be  unfair,  because  they  have  progressed 
under  other  administrations  as  well,  but  it  can 
emphasize  the  one  great  and  astonishing  truth, 
that  never  in  the  history  of  the  city  has  a  police 
force  been  permitted  to  become  the  bed-fellow  of 
these  monstrous  evils,  to  protect  them  and  contrib- 
ute to  their  overwhelming  power,  in  such  a  shame- 
less, openhanded  and  defiant  manner  as  it  has 
in  the  past  two  years,  as  it  is  still  permitted  to 
do,  and  as  it  will  probably  be  permitted  to  do,  for 
the  next  two  years. 

That  committee  will  find  nothing  in  these  pages 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  207 

unknown  to  the  observing  citizen.  The  great  mass 
of  the  people  read  and  forget.  These  evils  are 
hinted  at  herein,  and  gathered  together.  They  may 
impress  those  who  are  unaccustomed  to  taking 
notes  of  passing  events.  That  the  growth  of  crime 
in  Chicago,  and  the  prevalence  of  bestiality  is  not 
generally  believed  by  the  majority  of  its  people  is 
a  self-evident  proposition.  It  would  be  an  insult 
to  their  intelligence  and  virtue  to  assert  they 
knew  the  facts.  It  is  not  a  criticism  of  their  in- 
telligence to  say  they  do  not,  know  the  facts.  It  is 
rather  to  their  credit  that  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
business,  the  care  of  their  homes,  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  their  morals,  they  judge  the  great  com- 
munity in  which  they  live  by  their  own  standard, 
and  firmly  believe  that  as  they  know  themselves  to 
be  good  citizens,  they  believe  their  fellow  men  are 
likewise  good  citizens.  While  they  rest  in  this 
conviction  vice  is  eternally  at  work,  immorality 
undermining  and  crime  attacking  the  power  of 
government,  capturing  one  and  then  the  other 
of  its  strongholds,  until  today  the  criminal  classes 
constitute  the  balance  of  power  in    every    city  elec- 


2o8  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

tion,  and  can  handle  it  as  they  may  choose,  by  the 
mere  concentration  of  the  voting  strength  of  the 
keepers  of  eight  thousand  saloons  and  their  hang- 
ers on. 

The  appointment  of  a  comptroller  and  corpora- 
tion counsel  acceptable  to  the  public,  both  being 
men  of  sterling  integrity,  and  known  ability,  is 
merely  a  partial  promise  of  reform.  The  new 
comptroller  is  a  worthy  successor  to  the  deceased 
Waller,  while  the  new  corporation  counsel  takes 
his  office,  with  a  reputation  for  probity  and  legal 
acumen  which  are  guaranties  that  neither  will  be 
used  in  an  attack  upon  the  people's  laws.  But 
the  police  department  and  the  public  works  de- 
partment are  still  under  the  same  direction.  They 
give  no  promise  of  departing  from  the  protection 
of  criminals  on  the  one  hand,  nor  the  illegal  let- 
ting of  contracts  on  the  other.  Both  of  these  are 
inviting  fields  for  the  Baxter  committee  to  explore, 
and  when  they  shall  have  thoroughly  done  so,  if 
they  shall  turn  their  attention  to  county  affairs, 
they  will  probably  find  pastures  just  as  prolific  of 
the  rankest  of  weeds. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  209 

The  Baxter  committee  began  its  hearings  on 
the  1 8th  day  of  May,  1899.  I^s  opening  witness 
confirmed  the  truth  of  many  of  the  facts  set  forth 
in  these  pages.  He  paid  protection  money  for 
keeping  a  gambHng  house,  until  the  demands  for 
a  contribution  to  a  campaign  fund  became  too  ex- 
acting, when  he  was  "told  he  had  better  quit." 
"As  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of 
cure,"  said  the  witness ;  'T  quit." 

He  testified  that  gambling  was  going  on  every- 
where a  few  days  before  the  committee  began  its 
w'ork,  named  a  number  of  the  resorts,  and  related 
some  of  his  losses  in  a  few  of  the  games  in  which, 
although  a  professional  gambler,  he  was  "skinned." 

Officers  were  found  in  them,  and  protection  to 
the  games  openly  boasted  of.  The  club  organiza- 
tion, it  develops,  is  the  gambling  idea  of  evading 
the  laws,  the  theory  being  that  none  can  gamble 
unless  they  are  members.  The  practice  seems, 
however,  to  be  that  every  man  is  a  member  who 
will  not  squeal.  Houses  of  disrepute  were  visited, 
and  the  indecencies  alluded  to  in  foregoing  pages 
witnessed    by   the    sergeant-at-arms    of   the    commit- 


2i6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

tee.  His  testimony  in  this  respect  was  too  real- 
istic for  publication. 

A  member  of  a  recent  grand  jury  submitted  a 
list  of  all  night  saloons  he  had  visited,  and  found 
doing  business,  between  the  hours  of  one  and  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  list  contained  the 
names  of  forty-six  saloons,  located  on  eleven  dif- 
ferent streets.  His  information  was  not  as  start- 
ling as  was  the  fact  that  his  joint  feat  of  pedes- 
trianism  and  absorption  of  drink  is,  perhaps,  un- 
equalled in  sporting  or  drinking  records.  He  drank 
in  each  of  the  places  visited — total  drinks,  forty- 
six  in  four  hours.  Length  of  route  covered  four 
miles ;  width,  about  one-half  mile ;  square  miles  trav- 
ersed— two!  Can  any  sprinter,  carrying  the  same 
weights,  surpass  this  achievement? 

The  witnesses  so  far  called  before  the  commit- 
tee are  mostly  from  the  detective  force,  and  from 
among  lodging  house  keepers.  Their  replies  are 
evasive,  and  when  not  so,  their  memories  are 
clouded.  All  they  had  ever  known  of  the  subjects 
upon  which  they  are  interrogated  had  fled  from 
their  recollection.  "I  don't  remember,"  avoided  many 
a  pitfall. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  211 

The  methods  of  the  committee  do  not  impress 
an  observer  as  having  been  the  result  of  much  con- 
sultation or  careful  preparation  for  their  work. 
There  is  an  apparent  indifference  on  the  part  of 
some  of  its  members  to  reaching  results,  or  to 
remaining  steadily  in  the  pursuit  of  the  purposes 
for  which  it  was  organized.  Political  influences 
are  undoubte'dly  at  work  to  shorten  the  lines  of 
its  inquiry,  and  the  length  of  the  days  it  shall 
devote  to  their  development.  This  investigation  is 
not  wanted  by  local  politicians  of  either  party.  It 
rests  with  the  committee  alone  to  determine  whether 
its  work  shall  be  well  done  or  not.  To  maintain 
the  dignity  of  the  State  is  their  first  duty,  let  their 
investigation  reveal  what  it  may  and  strike  whom 
it  will. 

A  people  who  volurltarily  submit  to  taxation 
for  the  construction  of  such  a  stupendous  im-  , 
provement  as  the  drainage  canal  costing  $28,000,- 
000 ,  who  apply  their  surplus  water  fund  to  the 
building  of  a  complete  system  of  intercepting  sew- 
ers, who  compel  the  abolition  of  the  murderous 
grade    crossings,    through    the    elevation    of    railway 


212  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

tracks,  all  for  the  improvement  of  the  sanitary 
condition  and  safety  of  their  homes  and  lives,  are 
entitled  to  the  best  protection  the  state  can  give 
them  against  the  domination  of  criminals  and  de- 
bauchees, even  if  the  management  of  its  police 
force  should  thereby  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
state  agencies,  or  under  some  other  supervision 
which  will  compel  it  to  dissolve  its  relations  with 
vice,  and  prevent  it  from  utilization  for  f)oliti- 
cal  ends. 

Submission  to  the  exactions  of  trusts,  in  the 
shape  of  telephone  and  gas  companies,  does  not 
require  them  to  submit  to  a  trust  of  criminals 
and  police  officials.  The  element  to  which  it  is 
estimated  $70,000,000  is  annually  paid  in  Chi- 
cago for  its  drink  bill,  must  be  so  regulated,  as 
that  it  shall  cease  to  furnish  the  balance  of  power 
in  elections,  to  exercise  a  baneful  influence  over 
the  police,  to  ruin  the  young,  to  encourage  de- 
bauchery, and  breed  criminals.  A  municipal  gov- 
ernment that  cannot,  or  will  not,  control  these  vi- 
cious agencies,  will  ultimately  be  condemned  by  a 
public-spirited  people,  if  they  can  be,  as  they  sooner 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  213 

or  later  will  be,  persuaded  to  devote  a  few  hours, 
taken  from  their  business  or  pleasure,  to  a  vigorous 
uprooting  of  a  system  under  which   such   iniquities 
can    be    born    and    develop    to    such    menacing    pro- 
portions.   There  must  be  an  awakening  to  the  fact  that 
"They  say  this  town  is  full  of  cozenage, 
As,  nimble  jugglers  that  deceive  the  eye. 
Dark-working  sorcerers  that  change  the  mind, 
Soul-killing  witches  that  deform  the  body, 
pisguised  cheaters,  prating  mountebanks, 
And  many  such  like  liberties  of  sin." 


APPENDIX. 

From  the  daily  press  a  few  accounts  are  culled, 
and  added  by  way  of  appendix,  as  to  the  perpetra- 
tion of  crime  and  the  habits  of  the  police  in  connec- 
tion with  it. 

The  Baxter  Committee  unearthed  the  following 
account  of  the  degree  of  protection  afforded  to 
citizens  by  police  officers,  and  the  easy-going  in- 
difference with  which  the  Chief  of  Police  regarded 
the  affair  when  it  was  first  called  to  his  atten- 
tion. 

On  the  night  of  March  3d  ult.  a  woman  re- 
turning from  a  drug  store  was  stopped  by  two 
detectives  and  charged  with  soliciting  men  upon 
the  streets.  She  denied  this  offensive  charge,  told 
where  she  had  been  and  where  returning,  and 
showed  a  bottle  of  medicine  she  carried  as  con- 
firmatory of  her  statements.  This  happened  about 
8  45  o'clock.  She  was  then  within  twenty  feet 
of  the   entrance   to   the  house   in   which   she   lived. 


2i6  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

Notwithstanding  her  denial,  the  officers  went  to 
the  house  with  her.  One  of  them  then  said,  "I'm 
an  officer;  open  this  door!"  Another  woman  with 
whom  the  arrested  woman  was  boarding  asked, 
"What  is  the  matter?"  One  of  the  officers  rephed, 
"This  woman  was  on  the  street  sohciting,"  to 
which  the  boarding  house  keeper  rephed,  "You  are 
mistaken."  "Well,"  said  the  officer,  "if  you  want 
to  stop  her  give  me  $15,"  and  the  reply  was,  "She 
has  no  money  to  give  you  or  to  any  one."  The 
boarding  house  keeper,  thinking  the  men  were  com- 
mon thieves,  then  whispered  to  the  accused  woman, 
"Go  with  them  and  I  will  follow  you."  The  offi- 
cers took  their  woman  to  a  corner  and  into  a  saloon, 
where  they  compelled  her  to  give  up  a  pair  of 
diamond  earrings  for  ten  dollars  which  were  handed 
to  her  by  the  bartender.  The  boarding  house 
woman  followed,  and  prevented  the  detectives  from 
obtaining  the  ten  dollars,  but  finally  they  grabbed 
the  bill  from  the  accused  woman's  hands.  The 
women  were  then  released  and  returned  to  their 
home.  Taking  a  sealskin  sack  with  them  they  re- 
turned to  the  saloon,  and  were  handed  the  diamond 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  217 

earrings,  but  not  without  leaving  the  sack  in  their 
stead.  The  women  saw  the  detectives  return,  and 
drink  at  the  bar,  paying  for  their  tipple  with  the 
money  they  had  snatched  from  the  hand  of  the  one. 

While  the  parties  were  wrangling  on  the  street 
a  police  sergeant  and  two  officers  in  uniform  passed. 
One  of  the  women  cried  out,  "Here  are  two  men 
robbing  this  woman !"  The  sergeant  replied,  after 
observation,  "I  have  got  nothing  to  do  with  this." 
One  of  the  women  asked,  "What  are  you  for?" 
Then  the  sergeant,  having  discovered  the  men  were 
detectives,  said  to  one  of  them,  "They  are  all  right. 
Get  w^hat  you  can."     The  sergeant  then  left. 

The  women  now  demanded  that  the  detect- 
ives show  their  badges  of  authority.  They  were 
shown.  Demand  was  then  made  that  a  patrol 
wagon  should  be  called.  This  w^as  denied,  but 
accidentally  one  came  along  the  street  returning 
to  its  station.  When  the  accused  woman  caught 
sight  of  it  she  fainted.  The  boarding  house  keeper 
raised  such  commotion  that  one  of  the  detectives 
said,  "For  God's  sake,  shut  that  woman's  mouth 
up  or  she  will  make  us  trouble!"  They  then 
ran  away. 


2i8  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  next  day  the  boarding  house  woman  called 
on  the  Chief  of  Police  and  told  the  whole  story. 
He  referred  her  to  the  Lieutenant  at  the  station 
of  the  precinct  in  which  the  indignity  occurred. 
To  him  the  entire  facts  were  given,  and  written 
down  by  the  desk  sergeant.  The  men  were  there 
identified. 

On  the  following  day  one  of  the  detectives 
went  to  the  women's  house,  accompanied  by  a 
brother-in-law,  whose  wife  was  a  personal  friend 
of  the  boarding  house  woman.  The  detective  had 
a  copy  of  the  woman's  statement  as  she  had 
made  it  at  the  police  station.  He  begged  for 
mercy,  crying,  "he  had  nothing  to  say  for  him- 
self." He  piteously  pleaded  he  had  a  mother  in 
the  hospital,  a  mother-in-law  who  was  dying,  and 
three  small  children  to  support.  Suggestions  were 
made,  and  the  woman's  feelings  worked  upon  so 
that  she  was  induced  to  leave  the  city. 

Meanwhile  the  boarding  house  keeper  made  a 
statement  at  another  police  station,  in  which  she 
suppressed  the  facts  as  to  the  diamonds  and  the 
money.    She  was  asked  to  appear  before  the  police 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  219 

trial  board,  and  refused.  Thereupon  the  charges 
against  the  detectives  were  dismissed. 

It  -developed  before  the  Baxter  Committee  that 
the  Chief  of  Police  had  been  told  all  the  facts.  The 
papers  got  hold  of  an  account  of  the  affair,  and 
the  Chief  called  upon  the  boarding  house  keeper. 
In  the  course  of  his  conversation,  this  woman  try- 
ing to  protect  the  officers  through  her  aroused  sym- 
pathy, was  asked  by  the  Chief,  "What  about  those 
diamond  earrings  and  sealskin  sack?"  The  woman 
answered,  "If  you  don't  know,  I  don't."  He  then 
asked,  "Didn't  you  tell  that  to  me?"  She  answered, 
"If  you  can't  remember,  I  can't."  She  was  then 
questioned  by  the  Chief  whether  these  officers  were 
begging  her  to  quash  the  matter,  whether  they 
were  offering  her  money  for  that  purpose,  etc. 

The  Chief  stated  the  reporters  were  hounding 
him  to  death,  when  the  woman  asked  him  "why 
he  did  not  show  her  statement?"  He  replied  it 
was  locked  up,  "if  they  want  any  information  they 
can  get  it  from  you." 

One  of  the  men  is  still  a  member  of  the  de- 
tective force.      The  other  resigned  and    went    into 


220  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

the  saloon  business,  and  appeared  before  the  com- 
mittee entering  a  partial  denial  of  the  woman's 
story.  The  knowledge  of  the  Chief  of  all  the 
facts  was  fully  shown  before  the  committee.  Not- 
withstanding this,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
taken  any  steps  to  keep  the  matter  before  the 
trial  board,  or  to  institute  any  other  proceed- 
ings to  bring  these  detectives  to  punishment. 

This  is  not  at  all  surprising  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  this  officer  is,  as  is  shown  in  court  pro- 
ceedings, a  veritable  czar  in  his  own  estimation. 

The  following  account  is  taken  from  the  Chicago 
Democrat  of  May  27th  ult.  A  similar  report  of 
the  case  is  contained  in  the  other  dailies. 

"Jndge  Brentano  held,  this  morning,  that  Chief 
of  Police  K.  did  not  have  the  power  to  have  a 
man  restrained  of  his  liberty  at  his  (K.'s)  request. 
The  decision  was  brought  about  on  the  hearing 
of  a  petition  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  filed 
by  Attorney  F.  A.  D.  for  the  release  of  Edward 
H.,  who  was  arrested  last  Monday  morning  at 
Twenty-ninth  and  State  streets  on  account  of  the 
shooting  of  Officer  James   S.,  which   resulted  from 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  221 

an  attempt  of  a  number  of  officers  to  enforce 
the  disarmament-of-colored-people  policy  of  the  Chief 
of  PoHce. 

"The  man  had  been  confined  in  the  county  jail, 
and  the  return  of  the  sheriff,  when  the  prisoner 
was  brought  into  court,  read :  'Edward  H.  has  been 
detained  in  my  custody  at  the  request  of  J.  K., 
Chief  of  Police  for  the  city  of  Chicago.'  Judge 
Brentano  evinced  great  displeasure  when  he  read 
the  return  of  the  illegal  detainment  of  the  prisoner. 
'A  man,'  said  the  court,  'cannot  be  held  at  the 
simple  request  of  K.  or  any  other  person.  K.'s 
word  is  not  sufficient  to  keep  any  man  in  custody. 
I  won't  tolerate  any  such  actions,  for  if  the  man 
was  guilty  of  shooting  an  officer,  or  committing  any 
other  crime,  Mr.  K.  has  had  sufficient  time  and 
knows  how  to  take  the  proper  steps  to  punish 
the  prisoner.' 

"  'The  court  certainly  would  not  allow  this  man 
his  liberty  when  he  is  under  arrest  and  has  not 
been  booked  or  complained  against  before  a  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  owing  to  the  neglect  perhaps  of 
such  a  high  official  as  Mr.  K.,'  remarked  the  assist- 
ant city  prosecuting  attorney. 


222  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

"  'I  certainly  would,  regardless  of  whose  neg- 
lect it  is,'  said  the  court.  'The  prisoner  is  dis- 
charged.' 

"No  witnesses  were  heard,  the  prisoner  being 
discharged  on  the  ground  that  it  was  shown  in 
the  return  of  the  sheriff  that  H.  was  simply  being 
detained  to  please  Chief  K. 

"Attorney  D.  had  witnesses  in  court  to  show 
that  the  prisoner  had  been  beaten  and  injured 
by  the  police  who  arrested  him,  both  before  his 
arrival  at  the  Twenty-second  street  station  and 
after  he  was  installed  in  a  cell  at  that  place. 

"Prisoners  who  were  in  the  station  at  the  time 
H.  was  taken  there  were  in  court  to  testify  that 
the  officers  who  had  charge  of  the  prisoner  beat 
and  struck  him  in  such  a'  manner  that  they 
thought  H.  would  be  killed. 

"The  prisoner's  face  and  condition  in  court 
were  the  best  evidences  of  the  treatment  he 
had  received. 

"Both  of  his  eyes  are  closed,  swollen  and  dis- 
colored to  such  a  degree  that  they  stand  out  in 
bold  contrast   to  his   own   color,   which    is    a    dark 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  223 

copper.  Two  gashes,  each  six  inches  long,  on 
the  top  and  front  of  his  head  bear  testimony  to 
the  means  said  to  have  been  used  by  the  offi- 
cers in  carrying  out  their  chief's  new  disarmament 
poHcy. 

"It  is  also  alleged  that  the  prisoner  was  confined 
in  a  dungeon  cell  while  he  was  in  the  custody  of 
the  Twenty-second  street  police. 

"After  his  discharge  the  injured  man  had  to 
be  helped  to  the  elevator  by  two  of  his  friends 
because  of  his  injuries.  The  names  of  the  officers 
who  assaulted  the  prisoner  were  not  obtainable, 
for  the  reason  that  the  prisoner  had  not  been 
booked  and  the  officer  making  the  arrest  had  not 
signed   any  complaint." 

Two  observations  will  arrest  the  attention  of 
the  average  reader.  They  must  naturally  occur 
to  his  mind.  First,  What  sort  of  a  Sheriff  is 
he  who  will  keep  a  man  in  jail,  without  a  proper 
commitment?  Second,  What  kind  of  a  lawyer  must 
he  be  who  will  suggest  to  a  court  the  propriety 
of  depriving  a  man  of  his  liberty,  without  due 
process  of  law,  at  the  mere  request  of  such  "a  high 
official"  as  the  Chief  of  Police? 


224  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

The  return  of  the  Sheriff  in  this  case  to  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  should  have  been  treated  as 
a  contempt  of  court. 

Pool  rooms  are  operating  as  of  yore.  The  Daily 
News  of  May  27  ult.  contains  the  following,  viz. : 

"The  saloon  of  J.  H.  D.  at  E.  and  N.  C.  streets 
was  converted  into  a  pool  room  yesterday  after- 
noon at  the  time  the  ticker  began  to  record  the 
winning  horses  in  the  races  at  the  various  tracks 
throughout  the  country.  A  dozen  men  assembled 
in  the  barroom  where  the  ticker  was  located  and 
placed  bets,  while  a  number  of  women  sat  in  the 
back  rooms  and  also  chanced  their  money. 

"The  women's  wants  were  looked  after  by  a 
young  man  who  answered  to  the  name  of  'Dude.' 
After  each  race  he  carried  them  the  slip  printed 
from  the  ticker  showing  the  winners  and  handed 
their  money  to  those  who  had  been  lucky.  Dur- 
ing the  interval  between  the  races  the  schedule  of 
the  next  race  was  discussed  by  all  who  intended 
to  place  money,  and  'Dude'  would  come  from  the 
rear  room  with  a  handful  of  bills  to  place  on 
some  race  by  the  women. 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  225 

"On  the  inside  money  was  passed  over  the  bar 
indiscriminately  and  a  clerk  was  busy  keeping 
track  of  those  who  placed  bets.  From  the  con- 
versation which  passed  between  those  in  the  bar- 
room one  might  judge  that  he  was  in  a  gen- 
uine poolroom,  where  the  interference  of  police 
was  not  to  be  feared. 

"All  the  men  present  merely  gave  their  initials 
when  they  risked  their  money,  and  these  were 
carefully  preserved  on  paper  until  the  ticker  de- 
cided whether  the  money  was  lost  or  won.  The 
man  who  passed  as  'Dude'  had  charge  of  the  pools 
apparently,  and  all  the  money  which  was  placed 
went  through  his  hands.  After  taking  it  he  would 
call  the  initials  of  the  man  placing  the  bet  and  then 
hand  the  money  to  the  man  behind  the  bar. 

The  ticker  was  presided  over  by  a  large,  smooth- 
faced, well-dressed  man  and  anything  which  came 
over  the  machine  which  was  not  a  report  on  a 
horse  race  was  of  no  interest.  The  reports  of  the 
score  at  the  various  ball  games  were  soon  shown 
the  waste  basket,  while  the  lists  of  the  horses 
which    earned    places    were    preserved    and    hung 


226  Chicago,   Satan's  Sanctum. 

on  hooks  after  they  had  been  carefully  inspected  by 
those  present. 

A  number  of  stylishly  dressed  women  were  seen 
to  enter  the  place,  and,  according  to  informa- 
tion furnished  the  Daily  Nezvs,  women  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  visiting  the  D.  saloon  for  some  time 
for  the  purpose  of  placing  bets  on  the  races.  Two 
young  women  came  from  the  direction  of  L.  S. 
avenue  about  4  o'clock  and  entered  the  place  ap- 
parently as  though  it  was  nothing  new  to  them. 

"The  'ladies'  entrance'  is  on  the  E.  street  side. 
The  rooms  for  women  are  arranged  in  the  east 
half  of  the  double-flat  building  on  E.  street,  while 
the  saloon  faces  on  C.  street. 

"].  H.  D.,  who  conducts  the  place,  came  in  yes- 
terday afternoon  while  the  betting  was  at  its 
height,  and,  bedecked  in  diamonds,  walked  leis- 
urely behind  the  bar  and,  picking  up  a  Racing 
Form,  turned  to  the  'boys'  and  asked  how  'things 
were  going.'  He  was  told  the  winners  in  the  races 
which  had  been  reported  during  his  absence  and 
seemed  pleased  with  what  was  told  him. 

"The  saloon  is  known  as  'D.'s  O.  P.  C.,'  and 
has  been  conducted   at   this  place   for  the   past  five 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  227 

or  six  years.  The  license  for  the  place  is  in  the 
name  of  Mrs.  J.  H.  D.  It  is  said  that  D.  was 
formerly  in  the  saloon  business  here,  but  sold  out 
and  went  to  New  York,  where  he  put  on  a  vaude- 
ville show  and  sunk  several  thousand  dollars  try- 
ing to  make  it  pay.  He  finally  failed,  it  is  said, 
and  came  back  to  Chicago  and  reopened  his  saloon. 

"At  the  Chicago  avenue  police  station  noth- 
ing was  known  apparently  of  the  gambling  at 
the  D.  saloon  on  the  races.  Capt.  R.  said  that  he 
told  a  couple  of  his  men  some  time  ago  to  watch 
the  place,  but  he  said  they  had  reported  nothing 
irregular.  The  captain  seemed  surprised  when  he 
heard  of  how  affairs  were,  and  Inspector  H.  was 
apparently  very  indignant  at  the  thought  that  any- 
thing of  the  sort  was  going  on  in  his  district.  He 
at  once  gave  the  captain  orders  to  send  a  couple 
of  men  to  the  place  and  if  anything  was  found  to 
be  going  on  there  to  stop  it." 

The  result  of  the  visit  of  the  Inspector's  officers 
is  thus  stated  in  the  Tribune  of  May  28th  ult. 
Its  headline  is  suggestive,  in  view  of  the  particu- 
lars given  in  the  Daily  Nezvs  of  the  occurrences  by 
its  reporter. 


228  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

"REPORT  NO  GAMBLING." 

"A  report  that  a  poolroom  was  being  conducted 
in  the  saloon  of  J.  H.  D.,  E.  and  N.  C.  Streets, 
was  investigated  yesterday  by  Detectives  B.  and  R., 
who  visited  the  place  at  3  p.  m.,  and  reported  no 
gambling  existed  there.  It  was  said  that  during 
Friday  afternoon  bets  on  the  races  were  accepted 
in  the  saloon  and  that  men  as  well  as  women  fre- 
quented the  place." 

The  newspapers  contribute  evidences  of  the  ab- 
sence of  crime  in  Chicago,  and  of  police  operations 
as  follows,  viz. : 

From  the  Daily  Nezvs  May  27th  ult. 

"Officers  from  the  Attrill  street  police  station  are 
scouring  the  west  side  in  an  effort  to  apprehend 
burglars  who  created  havoc  in  the  vicinity  of 
Humboldt  Park  boulevard  and  Western  avenue  dur- 
ing the  early  morning  hours  of  yesterday.  Among 
the  residences  visited  by  the  night  prowlers  were 
those  of:  (Here  follows  a  list  of  eleven  bur- 
glaries. ) 

"In  addition  burglaries  at  the  following  places 
in  the   immediate   neighborhood  have  been  commit- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  229 

ted  within  the  last  few  days:  (Here  follows  a  list 
of  four  burglaries.) 

"One  of  the  burglars  rode  from  house  to  house 
on  a  bicycle.  Two  revolvers  dropped  by  the  vis- 
itors were  found  in  the  yard  of  the  E.  residence. 
The  territory  sufifering  the  nightly  raids  is  em- 
braced in  the  suburb  of  Maplewood,  and  citizens 
have  armed  themselves  in  their  own  defense, 
asserting  that  police  uniforms  have  not  been  seen 
on  the  streets  concerned  for  weeks." 

From  the  Democrat  May  27th  ult. : 

"Burglars  forced  an  entrance  into  the  store  of 
the  Guarantee  Clothing  Company,  State  street,  last 
night  and  stole  nearly  $1,000  worth  of  goods. 

"Apparently  the  thieves  took  their  time,  and  the 
police  say  they  must  have  used  a  wagon  in  remov- 
ing the  goods.  Persons  living  in  the  flats  above 
heard  nothing  unusual  during  the  night,  and  the 
police  are  unable  to  comprehend  how  the  thieves 
could  remove  the  great  amount  of  property  v\^ithout 
attracting  attention. 

"This  morning  a  clerk  opened  the  front  door  of 
the  store.  It  looked  as  though  a  small  cyclone  had 
passed  through  the  establishment." 


230  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

This  burglary  took  place  between  two  police  sta- 
tions, from  neither  of  which  it  was  far  distant. 
It  is  probable  that  if  one  officer  had  gone  over 
his  beat  just  once  that  night,  its  perpetrators 
would  have  been  caught  in  the  act.  Some  neigh- 
boring saloon  was,  perhaps,  more  needful  of  police 
protection! 

Some  tremendous  effort  is  being  made,  however, 
to  suppress  policy  shops  and  clean  out  all  night  sa- 
loons !     Witness  the  following,  viz. : 

From    papers    of    May    27th    ult. : 

"Detectives  D.  and  D.  of  Chief  K.'s  office  raided 
a  policy  shop  in  the  basement  of  the  building  at  6 
Washington  street  last  night  and  destroyed  the  fix- 
tures of  the  place  and  confiscated  the  sheets,  records 
and  other  paraphernalia. 

"The  shop  was  in  a  small  room  under  the  side- 
walk and  was  reached  through  a  barber  shop.  S.  H., 
the  police  say,  was  the  agent  in  charge  of  the  place, 
and  represented  the  O.  R.  &  G.  company  of  Fort 
Erie,  Canada.  No  arrests  were  made,  but  Chief  K. 
says  the  place  will  remain  closed." 

"Two  hours  after  midnight   Sergt.   M.  and  Offi- 


Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum.  231 

cers  M.,  O'B.,  H.  and  F.,  from  the  Harrison  street 
police  station,  raided  the  C.  L.  saloon  at  State 
street,  arresting  sixty  inmates.  The  majority  of 
these  were  boys.  There  was  one  man  with  gray 
hair  and  wrinkled  face. 

"Shortly  before  the  police  court  convened  at  9 
o'clock  the  entire  crowd  \vas  marched  into  Inspector 
H.'s  office  and  from  there  to  the  courtroom,  where 
the  cases  were  disposed  of  by  Justice  M.  Every 
sort  of  a  plea  generally  used  in  court  was 
brought  into  play  by  the  defendants.  Some 
cases  were  dismissed,  while  other  prisoners  were 
fined  $25  and  $50.  The  police  claim  about  half  of 
those  arrested  were  criminals. 

"The  arrests  were  made  because  of  the  large 
number  of  complaints  against  the  saloon." 

The  raid  on  the  policy  shop  belongs  to  the 
spasmodic  line  of  operations  of  the  police.  Fifty 
of  them  could  be  made  if  some  mysterious  reason 
did  not  exist  why  they  are  not  made. 

The  saloon  referred  to  belongs  to  the  all  night 
class,  and  is  one  of  the  most  notorious  of  the  kind. 
It   has  been  protected   in   the  past,   and   still   would 


232  Chicago,  Satan's  Sanctum. 

be  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  "a  large  number 
of  complaints"  have  been  made  against  it.  These 
are  not  new  to  the  police.  They  have  been  made 
before,  but  something  must  be  done  for  appear- 
ance sake  Vv^hile  the  Baxter  Committee  continues 
its  probing!  That  this  place  was  a  resort  for  crim- 
inals is  not  a  recent  discovery  by  the  police.  They 
always  knew  it 

To  cull  the  press  for  proofs  of  the  truth  of  the 
charges  made  in  the  foregoing  pages,  would  result, 
in  a  few  days,  in  the  reproduction  of  a  mass  of 
evidence  on  the  total  inefficiency  of  the  police  force. 
Such  as  are  here  given  are  examples  of  the  many 
the  scissors  could  find. 

The  reader  can  multiply  them,  in  his  mind,  ten 
fold  in  a  week's  time,  and  then  reach  a  result  far 
short  of  the  facts. 


The  whole  story  of  the  alliance  between  the  police,  the 
saloons  iiiul  the  justices  is  told  in  the  following  cartoon  taken 
from  the  Daily  News  of  June  23,  lb99. 

CAUGHT    COMING    AND    GOING. 


THE  DIVEKEEPER  (to  Harrison  street  police  officer)— 
"I've  got  uiy  dollar  a  head  out  of  them.  Now  you  can  drive 
them  into  court  and  give  the  justice  his  chance." 


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